


A New Frontier

by hypersonicJD



Category: Milo Murphy's Law
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bandits & Outlaws, Developing Relationship, Gen, Guns, Lasers, Mars, Science Fiction, Sheriff - Freeform, Solar System, Space Cowboys - Freeform, space travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:29:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 46,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28825230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypersonicJD/pseuds/hypersonicJD
Summary: Cavendish has to travel to Mars in order to learn new things from space, his own capabilities and feelings, but what is he gonna encounter in this unknown place to him? Will he be able to adapt properly?
Relationships: Balthazar Cavendish & Vinnie Dakota, Brick & Savannah (Milo Murphy's Law)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 9
Collections: Team Cavota





	1. Departure

It is the year 2275. Many things have happened in this distant future, World War 3 happened and lasted for quite some time. There weren’t any victors, only losers. Some countries ceased to exist, others came into life, same happened with various people, inventions, ways of life changed for better or for worse for some.

Earth needed a solution for how much damage was done, so most of the nations united themselves into one single country, only very few remained separate.

This was a decision that shook the entire planet, as the country chosen to be on charge of everything was because of their dedication, their very delicate way of doing things, being one of the major contributors for stopping the war (even though they also participated on it as one of the first countries) and were willing to do anything in their disposal to fix whatever they had done.

Fortunately for the world, they succeeded and have made the world a better place than when the war started.

Not everything is rainbows however, as poverty is still a problem in some of the separate countries and it doesn’t seem like it’s gonna stop anytime soon.

Most of the world is doing good, many parts that were destroyed from the planet were restored, some animal species came into light once more and even some vegetables, fruits and others that were extinct resurfaced from their ashes.

The country that is running 90% of the world is The United Kingdom.

But how did this happen? How could the other countries just cease to exist, or gave up their independency to be alongside the UK?

They didn’t.

Because of the technological advancements of the future, some of the major and best known countries went into space, to colonize planets from our solar system.

The United States of America, Mexico, Canada, China, Russia, Spain, France, Germany, India, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Japan.

This decision was taken because they wanted to still be independent, but leave The United Kingdom at charge, as they seemed the most capable in keeping order.

This was the right decision, as no other war has happeed and everything is relatively calm.

So, how was the war able to be stopped? What kind of thing was able to make the conflict be defused and resolved?

Balthazar Tiberius Cavendish was that kind of thing.

The best undercover agent the UK, even the entire world has ever seen.

Right now he is heading to see the queen as she has an important announcement to make for him.

He is proudly walking on the halls of the queen’s castle, being shown respect and honor from the guards and other people residing in the huge facility.

Being as old as 45 years old, he has been able to accomplish many great things, he has been an unrivaled prodigy and has been mostly humble about his position.

Now he wonders however, what could the queen possibly be requesting his presence for?

_My queen… I wonder, why are you summoning me in this occasion? I don’t quite think I have done anything wrong this couple of days, or something major to ever come out into the light. As an agent of the crown I have been keeping up with any kind of event but nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Nothing extraordinary… So why? Maybe she has a very important matter to address with me regarding my performance, a reward? Or some scolding perhaps? I don’t really know… But I should stop thinking about all of this, it is going to give me some anxiety or fear._

Relaxing his mind from his deep analysis, Balthazar arrives at the throne, standing right in front of the queen.

Queen Hildegard.

He takes a bow and kneels in order to pay respect to his ruler, as well as staying on this position.

“My queen, I have arrived. What is your will?” He says with the upmost respect, loyalty and finess he can display.

Queen Hildegard seeing this just blushes in embarrassment but also feels very flattered.

“Cavendish, we have already discussed this, you do not need to show me this much respect. You have already done so much for our country, I respect you and… Consider you a part of the royal family, you really don’t need to make this grandiose display. Although I am quite flattered by it, you have done this multiple times already”

“My dearest apologies my queen” He responds and stands up, following royalty’s desires.

Cavendish still demonstrating his nature of a gentleman, does not speak a single word until it is request of him, and it even makes the queen feel concerned, as Cavendish is just staring back at her with a blank expression.

“Cavendish? Are you all right?” She asks wanting to make sure he is okay.

“Yes my queen, I am fine” He replies with no fret.

“Well… It’s just that you haven’t even asked me why I summoned you here in the first place. I know it was sudden and I would’ve expected you to try and ask me about it” She said with some concern.

“I am deeply sorry my queen, I didn’t really state it before, but I only wanted to make any notion or sound if it was requested of me. I am curious of why you have called me, but I do not wish to ask if it isn’t necessary” Balthazar states with a serious and determined look in his eyes.

Hildegard’s reaction to Cavendish’s words is just her shaking her head while having some giggling and a wide smile.

“Okay, so from orders of the queen, forever and ever, you may have full liberty of speaking at your heart’s content Balthazar Cavendish, and you may also have liberty of addressing me in any way you might find fitting”

Cavendish reacts accordingly and finally makes his query be known.

“Very well then, my queen, why have you solicited me to make act of presence? Is something wrong? Has a new threat appeared?”

“Oh no no no, everything has been going smoothly. No threats, nothing is wrong, it was just a matter about your stay here”

This puzzles Cavendish deeply, what does she mean by his stay? Is he no longer allowed to live in his native country anymore?

“My queen… Is this an exile…?” He spouts in some concern, he isn’t quite sure what he did wrong to deserve that kind of punishment.

“Oh goodness no! None of that Cavendish” She denies with her hands and with a shake of her head.

“So, I will explain with quite a few details what I mean, so do not fear, this is not an exhile. It’s a more positive outcome Cavendish” The queen states with security and encouragement.

“How so my queen?”

The queen gets air in her lungs to tell the brit what is going on, after doing so, she beings the extensive explanation.

“You see Cavendish, you have served this country for quite some time now, ever since you were 18 years old you provided us with your knowledge, courage and royalty. Your never ending kidness and efforts were able to let us end the war that was still on a very explosive and aggressive state. For 27 years alongside you we have been able to upkeep peace and prosperity for our people. But, in my own point of view, and from the same view of others… We have decided to send you on a very special journey. You are going to space, to be more specific: Mars!”

This grabs Cavendish by absolute surprise and shock. He is at a loss for words. Hearing that he is going to space is very… Unknown to him, he has never gone to space. He has never studied anything around that matter besides the basic information you get from schools.

“This is because we have known for quite some time that they have superior technology than what we are using, and apparently deal with more… Other wordly threats, mysteries and problems, I feel… You deserve to become even better Cavendish, you still haven’t reached your full potential yet, and I want you to be able to explore it. Many of us want to see you explore new horizons and opportunities, and this would be the perfect chance to do so. We want you to have a say on this, but we genuinely feel this could be great for your development… And I also care for your future”

Balthazar is at awe, putting his hand on his chin. It is impossible for him to process all of these reasons, wishes and praise that have been revealed to him.

“M-my queen… I wouldn’t want to leave my country alone, I know you have very, very capable agents that are able to complete any task I could be charged with… But I… I just couldn’t, no matter how much I would like to improve in some way, this is my native country, my home, and I would want to be here to protect it from anything. Also having the opportunity to enjoy it as well, I love this wonderful piece of land with all my body, mind and soul”

Everybody in the room is touched by Cavendish’s words, including the queen who gives him a tender smile, appreciating how much love he is pouring into his sentences. Cavendish loves Britain and the United Kingdom in general, but Hildegard will not accept a no for an answer.

“That is… Very touching and recomforting coming from you Cavendish… Many of us admire you, respect you and… Care for you for that kind heart of yours. But after really thinking on this subject, I will not accept a no for an answer. You need to grow, you need to be better, because I want you to do so. I do not want your potential to go to waste. Besides, with what you will learn on that place. You are embarking to this journey as an order and a mission, for your own good agent Balthazar Tiberius Cavendish. Is that clear?”

With this last sentence the royal figure asserts some dominance on his subject, who simply pouts at first, exhales in a sign of defeat and accepts.

“Yes my queen”

Hildegard repeats her smile and wants to say a few last words to the man before the preparations for his departure are set.

“Cavendish… The only thing I ask of you is… To take care of yourself, many of us don’t quite know what is awaiting you in that far away planet and… We wouldn’t want to lose you, you are an important person to all of us, a hero, someone to look up to and you will most likely be operativing in this place for months… Maybe years… So… Do not let your flame extinguish, we want you to return…”

In his true heroic nature, he bolsters his queen his own satefy and perseverance.

“Do not worry my queen, I will keep myself at the best of conditions, you will not be disappointed! I promise you that… I will return safe and sound, no matter what”

This pleases the woman, who sits on her throne in a more comfortable manner.

“Very well then, please head to your home while we start to make the preparations for your trip, and be careful”

On one last note, he nods with his head and walks towards his house. After everybody is sure that the British man has left, one of the subordinates of the queen makes a remark.

“My queen, I understand you truly want that man to become a better agent and maybe a better person with this odyssey but… Didn’t you want him to stay?”

She frowns in sorrow at his notion, knowing that he is indeed correct.

“Yes… I wanted him to stay… I love him… The problem is, I would be doing an injustice to him if I let him stay. Like I mentioned before, he wouldn’t be able to search for his true potential, he has room to grow. He has been a prodigy from the start, but he has lacked… Physical experience, he doesn’t quite know how to fight one on one, and he was shown some amazing lifting feats on some of his missions. He also does not know how to use a wide variety of weapons, only gadgets that tinker with the opposition’s equipment. He cannot rely on those every time… It hurts me deeply to see him go but… This is the best for him” She exclaims and displays some sadness in her words, but still in hopes of seeing Cavendish’s life improve due to this decision.

A week has gone by after Cavendish’s meeting with the queen and at this moment he is at the UK’s spatial research facility below the queen’s castle.

Cavendish steps inside an elevator and selects a button to go to the 20th floor.

Many emotions are swirling through his head nonstop.

_She wants me to go to space… And leave my country behind… To improve my skills and gain more knowledge… I truly value it, but is this the right thing for me to do? I am already an incredible agent here and I am quite sure I could learn from the technology and training on this planet… I also… Never… Declared to her…_

Inmediately after this contemplation, his cheeks turn red and feels his own body temperature elevate. This has clearly made him shy and embarrassed of confessing his love to the queen.

_No… That wouldn’t happen… Not in a million years, she has respect and care for me, but not on that level… She wouldn’t, she is from the royal family and they would prefer if she married somebody of that same type of lineage and class. I am only an agent, nothing else… Nothing more._

With a deep breath, he maintains his firm posture and awaits for the elevator to stop.

In a few minutes flat, it does so and Cavendish exits.

He gets a glimpse of what is to come: A spaceship of 82 feet which is getting its final preparations for launch.

As he takes a look at the shuttle, he is approached by 2 ladies and 1 gentleman.

“Mr.Cavendish! It is great to see you!” The ladies say with excitement.

“Hello agent Cavendish, my name is Stelton Corack and we have been assigned as your crewmates for your space odyssey, these two women are Mary and Rebecca”

This very unexpected greeting caught Cavendish off guard and he seemed somewhat uncomfortable at first with their presence, as if… It was a slighty bad omen for this trip, he ignores however. It would be quite rude to not greet these fine people back after they have presented themselves.

“Very pleased to meet you, I thought this was going to be a trip with me just being on the shuttle and heading automatically to Mars, but I really wouldn’t mind having the company from capable individuals like yourselves, I can sense experience and knowledge for the three of you, so in my mind you are worthy of my trust” Cavendish says with a serious and judgemental tone. He has put some of his trust on this crew, although he has his doubts, as the ladies appear to be on their early 20’s, while the gentleman is somewhat close to his age, probably on his late 30’s to mid 40’s.

“So, if I may ask Mr.Corack, do you have any approximate of how long the journey would be?” He queries the astronaut gentleman who is very sure of his answer.

“Travel time would probably be around… 175 days”

Hearing this makes Balthazar’s face flinch a little, he really didn’t think it was gonna take this long for his space travel adventure to Mars.

“Are you sure Mr.Corack?”

Corack nods and Cavendish pouts, feeling like a child that is gonna spend a very long time in his parent’s car for a trip he didn’t want to go to, but it might be worth it in the end he thinks.

So with a sigh he prepares his mind for this odyssey and heads into the spaceship.

Taking a deeper look into the shuttle itself it appears to have a black with silver coloration and wide circular rockets for propulsion, a wide and ovulated stabilizer on the back that will help the ship with any unbalance, a mid fuselage that ends in an upwards curve where the forward fuselage and crew cabin are, at least from the outside.

“Does this ship have a name?” Cavendish asks.

“It’s called Serenity, she has been used a few times but is basically brand new, she really hasn’t seen that much action in her lifetime” Mary responded on a calm manner. “We should start to get ready however, the preparations for the ship are done” Following this, Cavendish turns his head towards his crew and agrees. “Indeed, we should start to equip ourselves for this course”

The whole crew equip themselves with the usual astronaut gear, the whole body suit, the oxygen tank, gloves, and lastly but not least, the space helmet.

Balthazar hears beeps and boops from all of the buttons the other crew members are pressing in order to get the metallic piece of transportation to blast off.

He looks into the cockpit with some fear, he doesn’t quite know if he is going to be able to make it through the journey itself, and he also does not know anything about Mars, it is a completely new experience to him, and it terrifies him.

“Don’t worry Mr.Cavendish, we are going to take care of ya, we promise!” Rebecca comforts the British man, who is less altered by his emotions thanks to her comment, but still cannot get over his concerns and bad thoughts.

Embracing himself on his seat, he is ready for blast off in terms of his body being secured, his mind is not in the same spot unfortunately.

With a deafening sound, the ship takes off into the sky, starting to reach the troposphere.

The entire ship is shaking as they approach the stratosphere and Cavendish is shaking as well, not from the ship’s sudden change, but because of his own tremors.

“Elevate the left rocket by 55 degress!” Mr.Corack says to one of the girls and she does do in an instant. More instructions get said between the crew members, but Balthazar is attempting to say conscious and not frightened.

“Mr.Cavendish! Mr.Cavendish!” Mary tries to catch the brit’s attention as he is still struggling to cope with his own feelings at the moment.

“W-what?” Finally responding to the woman’s insistence, he stares at her and she signals with her point to one of the various buttons that are installed in the ship.

“We need you to press that button as we need to control our temperature! Please hurry! I am unable to do so as I need to take care of the main stabilizer propeller!” As soon as she spouts this bit of information, she goes back to her seat and does what she mentioned.

Cavendish coming to his senses presses the button and the temperature of the ship starts to regulate automatically, after doing this simple operation, he looks back at his crew who are still busy with their own duties on maintaining the ship in its proper course and state.

After some hard worked minutes travelling through the stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, ionosphere and the exosphere they are free from Earth’s gravitational pull, and is now a matter of letting the ship direct them to their destination.

“Well, we did it. Ship is fully out of orbit and we can relax, see the stars, do whatever we want here!” Rebecca tells the crew, making everybody show their relief.

Except for Cavendish, he is still scared of the whole ordeal and as soon as he gets up from his seat, his agitation is very clearly seen.

“Wow… Mr.Cavendish, are you all right? You are shaking quite terribly” Stelton voices to his blond crew mate.

“Y-yes… I am all right… I-I just need to take some rest, do not worry about me” Attempting to stop his voice from giving in, he reassures his comrades that he is fine, although he knows that is far from the truth.

It will take him a bit to fully recover, so in his mind the best solution is to get some sleep.

Heading to whatever room he finds first, he dumps himself onto the bed, wraps himself with the sheet and closes his eyes.

He hopes that tomorrow might be better and it probably will be, but…

_Now… I have to deal with this new group of people that I do not know in any way… I am away from home… I do not know what awaits me in that place… And… I’m far away from the queen… My queen Hildegard… What a fool… Thinking I could’ve had any chance to declare myself… No, I shouldn’t give up on that dream just like that, I was able to become a hero in Britain, I am quite sure I can get the queens heart. I just have to truly try… Although… I need to come back alive first, I want to see her but I need to deal with this first… Yes, I will make it through this, I am Balthazar Cavendish after all. Nothing has stopped me before and nothing will stop me now! Do not trouble yourself my queen, I will not… Fail…”_

Unable to keep his eyes open, he falls into a deep sleep. It is what he wanted to do, and it apparently is what his body needs.

Only the future will be able to tell what awaits our decorated hero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is gonna be an AU fanfic so expect a lot of things to change :P and I do hope you enjoyed this first chapter! Oh, and another thing, the ship mentioned here is Serenity from Firefly. It's a space cowboys series so I had to reference it somewhere! For fans of the show I do apologize though, as I am not very familiar with the show itself but a friend showed me a few clips of it. So I do apologize in advance if I don't get something right!


	2. A Space Odyssey

_Balthazar Cavendish here, writing the first of many logs documenting my experience on the Serenity spaceship on my way to Mars. This is the log for my first day here, and so far things are calm and quiet, everybody spends their own time in their rooms, and whenever something is needed it is said by a speaker on the ship._

_The things requested through this speaker have been: Cleaning duties, cooking, taking care of the trash made in the ship, making sure we are not going off course, regulating the orbital maneuvering system._

_My crewmates appear to be quiet and don’t interfere with my activities. In my opinion this space trip may not be as bad as it might’ve appeared at first, but it is also way too early to say anything for sure. It is my first day on this shuttle after all.ith this I end this log and await for any opportunity I might have to continue with these logs._

_______________________________________________________________________________

_Day 7 log._

_A full week has gone by since I joined this group on our space travel mission to Mars, as stated before, everything has been fine. No major incidents to report of any capacity and the behavior of my companions hasn’t shown any significant change. Recently I have been tasting more of the dehydrated food provided to us and the results have been mixed._

_Some of the food tastes just as good as the original, some others taste absolutely dreadful and make me want to puke. Even so, I have eaten those disgusting packets for the sake of not having it go to waste. Speaking of alimentary differences, due to the low gravity of the environment I am currently in, I have gained some weight, but lost some muscle and bone . The difference is slight, but still quite a notable change as my clothes have become a bit too tight on me, and might need to be tailored at some point somehow… I was fortunately advised of an exercise section of the ship where we can work out and try to recover some of the bone strengthand physical fitness we may have lost, I will surely adhere to an exercise regime to stay in top shape. There isn’t anything else worth mentioning, so with that this log is closed._

_______________________________________________________________________________

_Day 14 log._

_2 weeks have gone by aboardthe Serenity and… to be frank, the name is starting to lose its charm.Today we had an “Eat Together” meeting where we got the chance to get to know each other a little more._

_To my dismay, Mr. Corack has very, very bad table manners , speaking with his mouth open, using his hands quite often to eat food that should be eaten with utensils, and sometimes his laughter goes a few decibels above what I would consider appropriate._

_Mary is not very talkative but my goodness… Can she tap on the table, she refused to stop,no matter how many times I asked her to do so . It wasn’t even that she was unable to hear me,, she literally glared at me, knew what I was saying to her, gave me a smirk, and kept doing it.Rebecca, on the other hand, has the opposite problem...she did not tap on the table, but instead spoke quite a lot. Whenever I tried to get a word in, she interrupted me with a new topic or fact that she just happened to remember, and my train of thought would be lost in the grand solitude of space. I do not know how long I can tolerate suchattitudes, I will have to speak with them and inform them of these issues if it does continue, my only hope is that this was a one time occurrence, as it was the first time we gathered together. End of log._

_______________________________________________________________________________

_Day 21 log._

_Balthazar Cavendish here… Today marks the 3_ _ rd _ _weekend of my space journey with my crewmates… Things have been better but… Not by much.,Today there was a small problem with the toilet, the air suction was not working as intended and Mr. Corack had to look into it and try to fix the problem. He is not very good with this kind of task and ended up making a big mess by causing the water to back up in the restroom. Luckily for me I was nowhere near the flood._

_In other news, I have found out some interesting new information, apparently Ms. Mary and Ms. Rebecca were taken here as teenagers together, they are sisters and have spent a major part of their life in the space facility( Quite the prodigies for space venturing if I might add, thankfully, they stopped their usual habits at the table after I voiced my concerns with them. I do hope it can stay that way as I wouldn’t be able to take that blabbering from Rebecca and that table tapping from Mary for much longer., Overall the situation has improved and I hope it can stay on that good track. End of log._

_______________________________________________________________________________

_Day 30 log._

_THIS HAS BEEN THE WORST DAY OF ALL TIME. I HAD TO REPAIR ONE OF THE ROCKETS AS IT GOT HIT BY A METEOR. I WAS OUTSIDE USING MY SPACE GEAR AND MS. REBECCA WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SPOTTING FOR ME AS I WAS FIXING THE DAMN THING. SHE GOT DISTRACTED LOOKING AT THE STARS AND I GOT HIT BY A BASKETBALL SIZED METEORITE. MY CORD WAS ALMOST GONNA BREAK AND I WAS ALMOST GOING TO DIE. SHE IS AN INCOMPETENT LITTLE…_

_______________________________________________________________________________

_Day 58 log._

_Today marks the second month of my spatial odyssey, and it is making me more and more frustrated overall._

_Mr. Corack is quite the… Nasty fellow, today he did not flush the toilet and I had to enter the bathroom with that absolutely appalling odour… I could barely hold my food for how foul it smelled. He also used most of the toilet paper that was available at the moment, so I had to pick up a whole new package from the cargo deck._

_Ms. Mary also does not pick up her trash in her room and it becomes a mess to traverse to even try to talk to her. I needed to do so as we were requested at the main deck for the ship’s check up and she didn’t attend. When I entered her room I saw her with headphones over her ears and music blasting. I could hear it from the doorway and she was in her bed so it must have been extremely loud. I got closer to her, pulled the headphones off her ears and told her we needed to go to the main deck and do a check up._

_She frowned at the notion and basically pouted all the way through. Truly a hassle indeed… These people seem to be far more unprofessional than what I first assumed… It is probably why I had a bad hunch about this lot… I still have so much to go through... We aren’t even close to Mars…_

_Good heavens, I truly wish for time to go faster in this type of situation…_

_______________________________________________________________________________

_Day 65 log._

_Today has been… Quite interesting, even good I could say. Mr. Corack told us to go to the exercise room very early in the morning so that we could have a group session. Everybody arrived rather quickly and he said that we should start doing some warm up exercises, so we did some leg lifts as our first activity. I could feel the heat of my knees starting to build up for something more strenuous and exciting. Afterwards we did some jumping jacks. Very exhilarating if I might add, and it energized us for anything else that might be requested of us._

_Mr. Corack really seems to be an expert on this kind of thing, maybe he was a coach for a sports team or something. It definitely caught me off guard as he told us to do some pullups on one of the taller bars in the room. It wasn't very difficult for me, I have very good strength in my biceps and triceps so lifting my entire body upwards wasn’t a taxing task. The girls were able to do their own pull ups quite easily as well. Mr.Corack was no slacker either, he was the first one to go and finished 50 pull ups in 1 minute. I did… 60 -if I recall- in a minute and a half, while the girls did 50 pullups in a minute._

_Next we were tasked with running some laps around the area for as long as we could last, this got every single one of us pumped up for some odd reason. It was like some sort of competitive side of us shone in that moment._

_I was feeling very confident with my normal pace being able to get ahead of everybody, until Ms. Rebecca started to go full throttle with her running, immediately followed up by Mr. Corack, it was like they were going for the gold medal in the Olympics! My jaw dropped at the sight of those two rushing around the course designated for us. Ms. Mary and I looked at each other in awe, neither of us could believe what we just witnessed, but as soon as I took my eyes off her, she also started picking up the pace. Not wanting to be left behind I also lengthened my stride and, due to my height I was able to catch up relatively easily. As a group we did laps around the entire thing for… Hmmm… I cannot even remember how long we spent on that track, or how many laps we did._

_However, in an unexpected turn of events, I was able to last the longest, although… It was by a very small margin, as Mr. Corack also has very high stamina._

_After we finished our little frenzy we sat down on the floor and just had a talk._

_Mr. Corack told us that before he became an astronaut, he had his own family back in the US, but due to the war they had to flee to Mars, so he is keeping the promise he made to his family and seeing them again. To me he appears to be a very gentle and kind man on the inside, he is just intimidating when you only get a glimpse of his outside, and he also may be nasty in some areas, but that is because.he was a competent athlete and as such he had a lot of leniency given to him during school.ml MP_

_I learned quite a bit about my crewmates today and I also had some fun with them. Maybe spending some more time with them wouldn’t be such a bad idea if I can have more good experiences like these, with that positive note, I close this log._

_______________________________________________________________________________

_Day 72 log._

_Balthazar Cavendish here once again, making a new log entry for my second month and a half on my voyage. The information that I will write on this entry is very amusing indeed, as I needed to ask Ms. Mary about her duties on the main deck, if she has been keeping with them properly, not that I don’t trust her, but more like… She may forget sometimes because of that music she plays in her headphones could distract her a bit too much. So I decided to go to her room and unfortunately for me, she was nowhere to be found. I had to walk around some areas of the ship I hadn’t seen before, when I stumbled upon a marvelous sight._

_It was a garden full of flowers, beautiful, beautiful flowers. Some of them were taken straight from Britain, some others were taken from other countries, the whole location smelled so… It was precious, I cannot find any more words to describe it, simply amazing. With my curiosity getting the best of me, I kept walking around the place, using my nose to really feel the scent of the flowers, and to a bit of surprise, there were even bees pollinating the flowers, and even more stunning, there was a beehive in one of the trees. I only gazed in that direction because I caught sight of a bee flying towards it with all of her pull of pollen. I did not disturb their little home as it was quite unnecessary and in fact would be counterproductive, as the bees were keeping the plants refreshed and healthy. Anywho, I continued with my stroll through the location until I saw the person I was looking for. Ms. Mary was watering a group of red flowers that looked delightful and most likely from another country, they might’ve been from Mexico as I recognized them somewhat from a book I read a couple of days before my departure to space._

_Disregarding my inner thoughts on what or where the plant came from, I approached Ms. Mary naturally, as I didn’t want to startle her, she looked quite invested in her current activity, and I softly called for her name._

_Prosperously, my approach worked and she just said a soft hello back at me, with some curiosity buzzing around my mind, I asked her why she was here._

_She told me it was her relaxing place, as she still misses her home somewhat and this gorgeous garden let’s her handle that aspect more naturally, and she also had a vast number of flowers._

_She said to me that… Back in the space base, she and her sister spent her days going through various tests and regimens to get them ready for their awaited time to shine on a space mission. They passed many of them with flying colors, but even though the staff at the base tried their best to keep the spirits up, most of the time they failed to do so, they felt rather lonely for a few days. They knew their family loved them and they did come to visit them 2 times a week… Including all of that they still felt depressed sometimes, so what the scientists did to make her happy, she was gifted some flowers and a music player, alongside some books to do whatever she pleased. Her sister got something called… A Playstetion? Or something alike? It was basically a machine that could play a big library of video games, and she enjoyed it very much. One would think it could make her dependant on that device, but she was able to balance it out with her usual activities, overall it was a good call she said, I couldn’t help but frown at her tale, not because I was annoyed or frustrated with their shortcomings, instead I was touched by it… I experienced many hurdles as a prodigy agent, I didn’t get to enjoy many things… I knew in my heart that it was all gonna be worth it, and to my good luck it was. I couldn’t even imagine how much it would’ve felt if I didn’t have my parents to support me all the way through._

_She wasn’t saddened by any of this however, she was calm and with energy to keep watering the plants. I don’t quite know if I looked into her face properly, as she was looking sideways but… I think I got a glimpse of her smiling… And another detail I never noticed before was that she and her sibling Ms. Rebecca keep up their hair very frequently, in fact they tend to look awfully presentable. Ms. Mary’s blond hair is able to shine with whatever light hits it, and gives off a rather soothing hue of color for the eyes. Ms. Rebecca’s hair on the other hand contrasts delicately with her sister’s hair and also blends in with the blue metal that resonates on some parts of the ship._

_The experience itself was pleasant and informative, thanks to my discussion with Mary I got to understand more of her troubles, she… Is somewhat troubled on her social skills, but being completely blunt, I am also suffering from that kind of issue. Maybe that is why I wasn’t able to click with these people from the get go. Enough about that, I do not want to end this notation on a sad note, overall it was one of the best days I have gotten from this odyssey. End of log._

_______________________________________________________________________________

_Day 79 log._

_Hello… This is the… 79_ _ th _ _day… 2 months and 3 weeks… I… I don’t quite know how to even begin… It has been a very… Eventful period of time… In order to express properly, I will take a couple of seconds to get my thoughts proper._

_Okay… So, today we had an unusual occurrence, we were travelling in a dangerous part of the cosmos where a magnetic storm was happening, regrettably the storm had to be passed through as we needed to head straight on to reach our destination._

_So we just embraced ourselves for the interaction between the Serenity and that magnetic storm. It hit us but only disabled some of the minor details of the ship, nothing major. It did however knock out the lights for a few moments, that… Is when we heard very frightened and loud screams._

_They were from Ms.Rebecca, she was completely horrified and we didn’t know why. We tried to approach her but she yelped even more, she was saying: “No! Get away! You horrible monsters! I don’t want to be eaten in the dark! Please!” She even started to cry, Mr.Corack and I couldn’t grasp the situation, we never got closer to her in a threatening manner, we tried to calm her down but it was just making the situation worse. Ms. Mary was not with us when the storm hit the shuttle, and as soon as she arrived at the scene she ran swiftly towards her beloved sister. She did so however in an… Avoiding manner, like she didn’t want to be seen, this puzzled me and Mr.Corack, we tried to open our mouths to ask why she was moving like that, but with a sign of silence she made her statement clear. She knew what to do and we did not._

_Another thing to add is that she made signals with her hands trying to tell us something, to hide between the structures of the ship. We ignored the reasoning of her signs, but we did so anyway._

_Using a tip toeing technique she got behind her sibling and hugged her, but… It was so strange… It was such a low profiled hug, and her sister tried to see where she was, but due to the darkness she was not capable of doing so. After her operation was successful, she began to hum a tune just loud enough for the girl to hear. It was very relaxing if I may say so myself, and on some turn of luck the lights were able to return._

_Seeing that poor lady with tears coming out from her eyes… Looking at Ms. Mary and the two of them holding that hug for a few minutes more… It made me realize that I misjudged them so horribly… They did not deserve for me to assume anything from their quirks and behaviors. I should’ve known better, I have been an agent for so long that… Sometimes I try to guess and assume what other people truly are, it was part of the job as I had to know who was a traitor… Who was an ally, who could change from the day to the night as an ally or an enemy. But these aren’t traitors or war winning allies… These are still people with their own values and troubles._

_Maybe this Is what the queen meant with making myself better… I don’t quite know, but it is quite… Eye opening, nevertheless… I still miss her dearly… I wish she was with me in someway… I never really got photos of her as… I didn’t want to make my mind have meaningless or dumb dreams. As the situation has calmed down, I think this is a good point to end this log, I will try to not assume as harshly anymore._

_______________________________________________________________________________

_Day 120 log._

_Balthazar Cavendish reporting here, on this new log for Day 120. Basically a month and a little over a week since my latest log. The reason I have taken so long to even make a new log is because I have been extremely distracted with various ship endeavors and… Bonding with my crewmates, so much time passed by with me spending time alongside them that I had forgotten about my log. I guess a good company can make your forget about important things huh? Regardless, resuming my self-put duty of writing I have an interesting anecdote to tell this time around._

_We had set up a table, some cards, chips, beverages and snacks for a night of poker. Stelton wanted to start first with the card shuffling and from the start I tried to oppose, as I was feeling confident and proud of my card skills, so he delivered the plastic paper to my position and I attempted to do the shuffling. To my dismay the cards were not cooperating with my movements and I made an absolute mess out of the entire deck and many of the cards fell to the floor._

_Very embarrassing indeed. The whole squad was bursting in laughter, even the usually quiet Mary was having a chuckle. Trying to pick my dignity back up from the floor, alongside the cards I handed them to Mr.Corack and he ended up doing the shuffling, as he was shuffling the cards he told us the rules for this session which were: The fixed amount for betting is 10 chips, 5 cards for this hand. After the setup was done, we got our hands._

_Everybody got an interesting set up to look at, and Stelton put 2 chips as the starting bet._

_As we were playing Ms.Rebecca wanted to tell us a story about her, how she knew about the fear that she has over the darkness._

_There was a time when she and her sister got a package, the package itself contained a collection of dolls for them to play with and they had a grandiose time with them. The main thing to focus for the pair at that time was the box however, they were 8 years old at the time and it was fairly natural for their minds of children to play with the box. So they got inside and closed it._

_At first the two were laughing and playing with no problem, they sang some songs and clapped their hands together with the rhythm. Their fun didn’t last long however, as Ms.Rebecca started to feel anxious and terrified of the darkness that surrounded them. She grabbed her head in fear, trying to grasp what was happening, she could only focus on the lack of light and Ms. Mary tried to calm her down, to no avail unfortunately. Ms.Rebecca only saw her as a “monster”._

_She refused to listen to her and her fear only got worse. Ms.Mary only realized a few seconds later that the obscurity was the culprit of her sister’s breakdown, so she opened the box and let all the light get in once more._

_Ms.Rebecca was seen with tears and shivers, hugging herself to make the shivers go away. Seeing the luminous rays of the lanterns from their room calmed her down and Ms.Mary grasped the poor girl into her arms._

_“Everything will be okay Rebeca… There aren’t any monsters… There isn’t any bloom, you are okay…” Ms.Mary stroke her sibling’s head and both of them understood that fear of hers._

_Surprisingly the two girls kept the box for further use, they ended up going inside a few more times, this was in order to test if Ms.Rebecca would become less and less scared of the dark that was present, and the theory was indeed correct. The black haired girl became less and less scared of the whole situation, until she had no further dread. To their dismay the same experience happened when the space station had a power outage and they needed to stay completely lightless._

_Before the story could continue, my ears were bothered by the sound of a snack being crunched. Looking at the direction from which the sound came from lead me to Mr.Corack, who just grabbed a handful of chips and shoved them into his mouth._

_Obviously annoyed, I gave him a glare showing my distaste for his action. “Oh… Woups, sorry, I was just so absorbed in the story that I just grabbed a little snack without even noticing it could interrupt Rebecca hehe” He said in response to my annoyance. I only huffed back and glued my eyes to Ms.Rebecca._

_She continued on, noting that this time around her parents were around so the support that she got that time was even more pronounced. Her mother hummed a lullaby to calm her down and it was very effective, she was capable of standing in complete blackness all by herself just with remembering the tune. Ms.Rebecca clarified however that the tune only works when she focuses on it from the start, she cannot hum it if she is already frightened and needs someone else to sing it to her._

_With her tale finally concluding we also were about to finish our night. Ms.Mary had a surprise for us, she said that if she won this last game everybody except her would have to do the chores of the ship. I refused to let that happen as I didn’t deem it fair to the group to take care of those duties and she wouldn’t even lift a finger._

_So I offered a counter bet, if I won she would have to do the duties all by herself, but if she won I would do them by myself. She accepted and we played the game._

_Unluckily for me… The game did not go in my favor, as I only got Three of a Kind, while she got Five of a Kind. A stomp putting it lightly._

_And so, I have to do the chores of the ship for the remainder of our stay, and that did not make me happy at all, but at least it was only on me and not the rest of the crew. With that note I end this log and go to sleep, as I will have to make breakfast for everybody, Balthazar Cavendish out._

_______________________________________________________________________________

_Day 165 log._

_Balthazar Cavendish here. Doing what is most likely gonna be my last log regarding my space odyssey with my crew. This day has been the most eventful and will go into my mind forever, as a staggering amount of incidents have occurred._

_To begin, the state of ship was well, the engines were working properly, the stabilizer was regulated, main deck directions were going accordingly, to the crew nothing was wrong._

_Until we heard a signal, another magnetic storm was coming, and it was quite massive, we would have to fully endure it for 10 minutes and even worse, we also got signals of a ring made out of meteorites approach our direction, so before the magnetic storm happened we had to maneuver ourselves in such a way that when the storm hit the ship, we would be in a safe spot._

_Due to my rather short training for piloting a spaceship and knowledge around space travel, I was not very confident on this task… But my teammates gave me a look of hope, that we would make it through. “Don’t worry Cavendish, we are gonna make it, you have us and you are also a great agent, I am sure you will get the hang of this as we go along, just try to watch us and follow our instructions. It is gonna be fine” Mr.Corack reassured me with his voice full of determination and perseverance._

_I was not going to let him down after all the things we have experienced and gone through, they might not be the best crew I could’ve asked for… Yet I consider them now friends, comrades that I can rely on._

_So I buckled myself to be with my crew and we steered the ship around, dodging any incoming pieces of rock and rubble that could impact us. We were doing a pretty good job keeping the ship intact._

_Destiny didn’t want us to succeed at first... One of the main rockets got hit by a somewhat large meteorite and we were in trouble. The spaceship could still be piloted but it became even harder to do so. So Ms.Rebecca and I went outside and tried to fix the rocket. She told me this time she will not take her eyes away from me at all. I said to her: “Thank you miss, we won’t fail our comrades, I assure you we will make it to Mars, no matter what”_

_Fixing was good smoothly, both of us switched sides and positions in order to repair the rocket as soon as possible, and the task was completed quickly and with no errors._

_Suddenly and without a moment to blink, a meteorite pushed me off the metal we were standing on._

_The cord that was attached to the ship which was also providing me with oxygen got cut as well due to the speed and distance I was sent away with._

_There was literally no way I could make it back to them… I was going to die and poor Ms.Rebecca was calling for my name in desperation, she didn’t know what to do, and who could blame her, I probably wouldn’t have known what to do either._

_I gasped for air that wasn’t there, and tried to move my limbs in a way to make me float closer to the ship, but after the rocket was repaired it started to speed up, as they did not want to deal with more meteorites._

_In my mind this was it, I failed queen Hildegard and my crew with staying alive._

_Remember how I said destiny at first didn’t want us to succeed? For me, it turned around completely._

_While I was floating in the vacuum of space, I saw a light… A rainbow colored light heading towards me, it was going full throttle and I thought it was gonna impact my poor body…_

_But it didn’t. It instead was… Carrying me, and as I was getting lifted I felt something… Something similar to hands, hands that were covered in cloth… Like cloth gloves._

_Even though I knew I was going at an absolutely ridiculous speed I… I wasn’t able to feel any of the effects from it, it was just happening. I thought I was dreaming or that I was dead and this was my brain making a mess of my senses._

_Very few seconds passed until I saw our shuttle, with Ms.Rebecca still outside, like if she was waiting for me to come back somehow._

_Luckily for her I did come back, the rainbow phenomenon left me at the metal part where Ms.Rebecca was standing, and immediately flew away._

_Ms.Mary and Mr.Corack noticing that I did not have any kind of oxygen opened a hatch where Ms.Rebecca lifted me and entered the ship._

_My helmet was taken off and I was able to breathe once more. Gasping for air I looked at the girl who had cried, thinking I was dead._

_“Ms.Rebeca… W-what… What happened…?” I said to her, she told me that she just saw me get hit by the rock and be thrown into the void. “I was so scared… I really thought you were dead… I was just standing there… Hoping that you would return…” She cried out to me while she clinched herself to me. I started to hear sobs coming from her voice and I was just lost… What was that… Rainbow thing… Why did it save me…?_

_Not long passed before we got struck by the magnetic storm and the whole shuttle was shaking. The lights went out and Ms.Rebecca was very close to entering another panic attack._

_Fortunately enough, she was able to hum that lullaby her mom sang to her and relaxed herself. No problems occurred with her fear of the dark, and the crew was relieved of that._

_After I grasped some of my air and bearings, I was asked what happened. Without a single doubt in my mind I told them about what I saw, how I was saved, and how I was able to be back with them._

_They could not believe it, in a good sense. They believed me, but the situation was so surreal that they couldn’t understand it._

_I was unable to interpret it too. I do not know what that thing was… Nor where did it come from… I just knew one thing, I was grateful with it. If that light didn’t save me… I probably would be dead by now._

_Like I mentioned, quite a lot of events happened on this day. Although we were able to make it through the storm, we were quite shaken from that experience. Everybody was still able to have a good mood for the most part._

_So in conclusion… Even though we didn’t start in the best terms, I have started to appreciate this crew and care for their lives, as much as they care for mine. In the remaining days I only got praise from them, they told me that they wanted to know more about me. The tales I spoke with the group had them with their jaws dropping and they said how much of an inspiration I have been for them. That if it wasn’t for me they wouldn’t have made it this far and they were so happy that they got to even know me._

_That really hit a cord with me… I wanted that kind of inspiration and will power to come out from people because of my actions, this is what I wanted my message to be, and at least with some people it has worked… With this last sentence, I declare the entirety of these entries come to an end in regards of the Serenity space journey, I might make new entries regarding my time spent on Mars or if Serenity is used for this extended amount of time but otherwise I close this down with a final note:_

_No matter how bad things seem to be, never give up. Have hope._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was my first full POV chapter in any of my fics and it was pretty fun to write it as a whole so I do hope you guys like it as well, chapter 3 will begin the main premise of this fic, so be on the look out for it!


	3. The Frontier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter will be longer than Chapter 2 so be prepared for a somewhat long read. Sorry about that but a lot of the concepts for this world will be introduced here, so I hope you enjoy it nonetheless! :P

After some long 7 months and a half, the Serenity crew have made it to their destination. Mars is right around the corner and everybody starts to get prepared with their astronaut gear, as far as they know Mars does not have any kind of oxygen and the pressure from the planet could completely destroy their bodies, so they need to use a space suit and helmet.

“Okay crew, we just have to go into the main deck and contro the ship’s landing, succeeding in this task will guarantee that we have landed on the red planet. Is that clear?” Stelton Corack stated in order to get his group ready for their respective place.

Mary, Rebecca and Cavendish respond with a: “Yes sir!” Full of determination and commitment they get in position and control the landing of the shuttle alongside Corack.

With careful maneuvering they get the rockets in a upright position and turn down the propulsion from them, to work as their landing method while the ship stays horizontally.

As the crew start to go lower and lower, they notice the town where they should be heading.

It has many small buildings made out of wood and also steel in some of them. Very rustic looking to their perspective and it makes them wonder how people actually live in Mars.

At long last, their space journey has ended as they have landed on the firm floor of Mars.

Realizing that they have finally arrived, everybody gets up and celebrates.

“Yes! We have done it! We made it to Mars!” Balthazar says cheerfully and his comrades get into the festive spirit as well.

“Yeah! Haha we did it! After so long we finally got here!” Rebecca jumps up and down with her hands held together while Mary applauds excitedly with a wide smile. It is a very rare occasion of her showing some kind of extreme emotion or excitement.

“Woof… There were times where I thought we wouldn’t really make it… But finally, we got here” Corack accompanied with his own comment and he let his hand rest on Cavendish’s shoulder.

“If it wasn’t for you Cavendish, maybe we wouldn’t have made it” With a grin displaying his massive respect for Cavendish, Corack gives him a pat on his back, to give him gratitude.

“Oh, please Mr.Corack, the whole group did their part, being completely honest… I wasn’t feeling the greatest… Having to deal with a new group of people I didn’t know before, but… It has a good experience, you made me realize of things I didn’t notice before about myself and… Helped me grow, to me you are new friends that I wouldn’t want to lose” The brit let his words out and really bring home the fact that he actually enjoys the company of these people, that he cares for them and that he would do anything in his power to help them whenever they need so.

With the heartwarming environment that has been created, they take a step outside their ship and start to see what the town is about.

Many folks are standing around doing their own business when they notice the squad, with some snorts being heard and some low key laughs.

Cavendish and the others notice that the entire towns folk are using very different clothes than what they are used to.

Cowboy hats, bandanas, boots, spurs, gloves that cover their entire hands and made out of leather, coats and dusters, and many other accessories.

“Why… Why aren’t they using any kind of special space gear? Are they… Aliens looking like humans or something?” Rebecca query’s in confusion. She does not understand at all how they can breathe or space or how the lack of gravity is not lifting them to the air and escaping the planet’s atmosphere.

Neither does Cavendish, Corack or Mary.

“I don’t… Know… Ms.Rebeca… And it is kinda… Odd…”

Cavendish told the girl, the group just couldn’t keep their eyes off from the rest of the town and they also looked at them oddly.

Minutes went by until they reached a building that said: Marshall’s Office.

Entering the building they see a man with curly black hair and wearing a black shirt with red cuffs, red necktie, also using his own cowboy hat, he was sitting on his desk arranging some papers and doing some writing on them. Noticing that somebody has approached him by the sound of the wooden floor he takes a peak at the group that is bestow upon him.

“Huh? Who are you people? What do you want?” He inquires in a brash and direct manner.

“We… Uh… We are the group sent by queen Hildegard, I am Balthazar Cavendish” Cavendish introduces himself and his crew while also attempting to explain his situation.

“Oh, you are that bunch huh? Well, congrats on making it to Mars”, The man spoke with a monotone attitude, not giving much value to his congratulations. “I am Block, but you may refer to me as Mr.Block”

“Understood sir”. Mary responded with a reverence showing respect, while Rebecca looked in some shyness, she is apparently shy to speak as she feels the man in the desk is frightening to her.

“You actually came in the right time, as I was handling your paperwork to fully arrange your stay in this place, so… Let’s see”. Reading his notes he starts to direct the members of Cavendish’s crew to their own designated duties.

“You two”, He refers to Mary and Rebecca. “You are gonna be sent to the Mexico division as deputies, to test out your skills as you don’t seem to have a resume to quality as sheriff’s”.

“Okay”. Mary accepts with a dry delivery of her words, while Rebecca just nods in timidity.

“Big man here”. Mr.Block signals to Stelton Corack as he reads the paper.

“You will be handling the USA division in night watching, you are gonna be checking on the night if any outlaw or law breaking happens to come by and upkeep control as a Sheriff, your resume in training and other missions you have taken part of deem you worthy of the position in my judgment”.

Corack glimpses back at Cavendish with a look of sadness, as he knows he won’t be seeing Cavendish as much anymore. Cavendish responds with the same look and Stelton just answers to the Marshall’s orders.

“Yes sir, I will do my best”.

Mr.Block sees on Corack conviction and trust in his eyes, he senses he can trust Corack with his duties but is still very stoic and serious with his expression.

“Good, the three of you can withdraw to the hotel, just say that I sent you and you will get special rooms where you can regenerate and recover any bone structure and mass you may have lost in your travel here. Tomorrow you will begin your training and get to know your equipment”.

With this, the crew of Serenity is disbanded, with the two girls waving goodbye to Cavendish and Stelton staring at Cavendish.

“Hey Cavendish, I wish you good luck, I know you will do great”, Corack affirms with a smile, and Cavendish promptly responds.

“Same to you Mr.Corack, I hope we can meet again someday, as I know you will be busy from now on” Balthazar with a soft smirk also believes in his comrade, who appears to be happy that Cavendish also thinks he will do great.

“Yeah… Me too, for now this is a farewell, I’ll see ya later Cavendish”. Also making his departure, this leaves Cavendish alone in the office with Mr.Block.

The brit is saddened that his group had to go in their separate ways, but understands that he needs to keep going without them, he first thought this was going to be a solitary mission, but he made some friends along the way.

“As for you… You are the best agent the United Kingdom has to offer right?” Mr.Block asks the British man who’s intentions are of incredulity, he doesn’t grasp how Cavendish could have such a title.

“That is indeed correct sir”. Cavendish responds appropriately expecting his own assignment.

“For you… We have…” Mr.Block looks into his notes one more time in order to tell exactly what Cavendish is going to do in this red and unknown planet for him.

“You are going to be handling sheriff duties with a partner, as from your background you seem to have handled situations alone, so you might need the extra help. Your missions were mostly intel based, infiltrating enemy facilities in order to gather information or sabotage their equipment, in here we tend to get into more… Physical confrontations, that is why you are being given a partner” The black haired man clarified to the brit in case he had any questions.

“A partner you say?” Cavendish inquires rather curious and disconcerted, a partner? He never needed one before, his capabilities were good enough on their own, so why would this be any different?

“Indeed, that would be all for now, you may retire to the hotel and get some rest from your journey, tomorrow we will introduce you to your new partner, I still need to work out your paper work as your resume is so massive I kinda need figure it out a few hours more” With a motion of his hand he communicates to scurry off and Cavendish does so elegantly, before he can fully leave however, Mr.Block calls for him again.

“ Wait! I just remembered something”, Balthazar turns around to hear the man’s last sentence. “You do have spare clothes right?” Mr.Block asks in an unsure manner as he doesn’t quite know how Cavendish is with his clothing management.

“Ah yes, I have 5 repeats of my clothing, why do you ask sir?” Cavendish asks perturbed, why does his boss want to know about his wardrobe?

“Whenever you get to the hotel, deliver the spares to any of the workers, the next day they will be delivered to you, the reason is that it is required for your job. And don’t worry about the details or anything about your clothes, they will be almost the same as before. After you get those spares, I will explain in more detail tomorrow as to why specifically”.

With this declaration, the British man is even more baffled, what could possibly be the motive to why he has to send his spares? What would be changed about the clothes? Many questions raise into his head, but he prefers to not dabble too deeply into them, as he was promised an explanation tomorrow.

Taking his leave, outside the establishment he gets called by an unknown individual.

“Hey”. Cavendish glances upon the figure that just spoke to him and it seems to be a relatively short man with olive skin, curly brown hair wearing a black cowboy styled hat with a red trim, orange sleeved shirt, red bandana covering his neck and shirt’s collar, brown belt with a gold buckle, black pants and brown roper cowboy boots. He was leaning his body on the wall of the office, with his head looking down and arm crossed. After Cavendish pays attention to his signal the man continues.

“You are one of the new guys that has arrived right?” He query’s in a very rude and condescending tone and Cavendish responds.

“Yes, I am one of the new arrivals to this… Place”. He affirms with a curious glare, this person is expressing on a rude and disrespectful manner and this puzzles Cavendish, he doesn’t know this person and he knows he hasn’t done anything bad to anybody here to garner this kind of behavior and approach.

“Well, let me tell ya somethin’… We aren’t like the UK guys where you come from, everything here is way more extreme, more wild and crazy, so don’t you go thinking you are gonna be the best just ‘cause you came from that place, you hear?”

Very alienating and discouraging for Cavendish, this does not bide well for having any type of friendly interaction with folk around here, and he doesn’t even know why this man is saying any of this. He hasn’t done anything.

“Okay? I do not understand why you have approached me so despiteful and rude, I do not know you sir, and I am quite sure I have not done anything to harm you or any of your piers, I have only just arrived here. If you wish to speak to me attempt to fix those horrible manners of yours and then maybe we may have a discussion. I do not have time to waste on folk such as yourself with no manners or behavior. As I have mentioned before, I haven’t done anything to you to deserve that kind of treatment”. Using his diplomatic manners he rebottles with an elaborate and well mannered insult.

If it was anybody else maybe a fight could’ve broken up, but this is Cavendish, he is not gonna get into that low level of a mentality, he is above that and will only answer with his words as he knows they can also hurt a lot if used correctly. He did not intend to do so here, not now.

He wants rest, so the brit heads to the aforementioned hotel and arrives rather quickly.

There the receptionist awaits on his desk, ready to greet any passerby and provide his services.

“Hello and welcome to the blue star hotel, how may I be of service to you?” The receptionist is a man of a regular looking body and white complexion using a royal blue vest, white dress shirt and bow tie.

Cavendish approached the desk and put his arms in the desk, giving himself some resting room while addressing the receptionist.

“Hello good sir, I want to be able to rest my poor body after having such a strenuous odyssey through space… I was sent here by Mr.Block and he told me to speak to one of your workers for something related to my clothing”.

The man acts accordingly and shouts for one of his workers to arrive.

“Hey! We need a clothes changer! We have a new guest and he’s coming from Mr.Block’s office!” As soon as this was said, a short man in a blue shirt, red bow tie, ginger colored hair with a weird afro and mustache enters the room with a salute.

“Toodles, could you take care of this man’s clothes?”. The hotel cleric asks nicely to the short man who answers in an exaggerated manner.

“Yes sir!” He lets his tongue out and just waits for Cavendish to tell him where his clothes are.

“Oh… My clothes are inside my spaceship, I think it is still outside this town however, we landed close but still a bit far, my clothes are inside a dark blue case in the first room” In a second the man was already on his way to the shuttle, running in a determiner manner.

“So… Should we just wa-“. Before the brit can even finish his sentence, the short man came back with the mentioned case, with not a single sweat, he didn’t even seem fatigued from his jog.

“Oh… T-thank you”. Balthazar thanks the red bow tie wearing man and he returns the gesture.

“You are welcome sir!”. He opens the case in order to let Cavendish see that all of his spares are intact and without a single scratch or stain. Finishing his inspection the brit directs himself to the receptionist and asks a question.

“I am sorry as I don’t remember if we discussed this detail before but, where was my room?” Cavendish said and the clerk widened his eyes.

“Oh my! Your room, yes, it is above here, I’ll guide you to it”. The man said and he accompanied Cavendish to his room.

There he finally enters and sees that it’s a mostly normal looking room, although there is a device on the wall that makes Cavendish wonder what it does, fortunately he does not have to figure it out himself, as the receptionist tells him right away.

“There you have it, it is a very pretty room, and this little device here is just for scanning your body, this is in order to figure out what happened to your body structure while you were in space and recalibrate it to what it was before. For example, if you lost 60% of your bone structure, this device will be able to detect it and start fixing it by using some cell regenerators for your bones and they should get you fixed up, it is a completely safe process so do not worry about that situation, and nothing else will be entering your body, just go to bed and everything will work properly”.

The more Cavendish hears about this place, the more he gets impressed and mesmerized, it really feels like he is living in a weird and super realistic dream. Nothing in the UK comes close to this kind of technology, and he has dealt with many technological advancements in there before. He feels as if he has only grasped into what space has in store for him, a very small fraction of what could come. After the explanation the clerk waves goodbye and lets Cavendish to his leisure.

The blond man takes this opportunity and lets his body rest on the bed, the sweet embrace of the soft fabric puts him at ease and comfort, he really needed that kind of feeling.

“Aaaahhhh… This is… So… So comfortable…” He whispers out in relaxation, as he stares to the ceiling, some thoughts come into his mind.

_ Who was that man that approached me before… What could he have possible wanted from me? Why did he address me in such an angered state…? And… What is queen Hildegard doing back on Earth…? Does she miss me…? Can I really last here without… Without her? Or without my friends from the Serenity crew? It has only been like… I don’t even know what time it is right now, I don’t know how much I have been here already but… I miss them so much already… Maybe I’m not gonna feel with way with my new partner… Maybe not… My worries still stay however… Could it be that perhaps that man was right? That I’m probably not going to be the best in this place and that… I might fail. Everything here is so… Strange and alien to me… _

_ Never have I seen those type of clothes the people were using… Those hats… Those type of shirts… How we are able to breathe in this planet that has no oxygen… I don’t understand many things at the moment… I do hope I get some answers and understand what the deal with this planet is. I want to understand, I want to succeed, or else my promise would’ve been in vane. I won’t fail my country. I won’t. _

Cavendish’s decision is set in stone, he won’t fail, he cannot fail, but he is extremely tired at the moment. He needs to sleep and recover his energy, he has spent so much time travelling space that he just wants to close his eyes.

And so he does.

After 10 hours of pure uninterrupted sleep he wakes up with a yawn and begins to stretch. “Mmmm… That was… What I needed… Some good sleep…” He says under his breath still feeling drowsy and not fully alert. To his annoyance somebody knocks on the door and interrupts his peaceful waking.

“Hello? Mr.Cavendish? We have your clothes ready, we just needed you to open the door and deliver them to you”. The hotel clerk’s voice is heard from the other side of the door and Balthazar with sleepiness answers it.

“Okay, thank you very much, but… How am I going to change? Don’t I need all of this gear to breathe and not drift into outer space?” Cavendish asked, genuinely bemused.

“Oh… Not really, at least not inside any establishment of the town or any close by towns and cities” The receptionist said with the most normal and honest attitude to Cavendish, who didn’t take the news lightly.

“WHAT!? WHY I WASN’T TOLD ABOUT THIS!?” Cavendish yelled, shocked. “SO I DIDN’T NEED TO USE ANY OF THIS WHILE ENTERING LOCATIONS!?” In frustration he takes off his helmet and throws it to the bed in an angered state.

“T-that’s… Correct… We are sorry we didn’t tell you before, I thought you maybe liked the space gear and…” Before the poor man can finish, Cavendish just snatches his clothes from the clerk’s hands, closes the door and removes his astronaut suit.

“All of this time I could’ve taken off the space helmet while being inside an establishment… My nose was itching that entire time!” Letting his gripe be known to the world, he finally scratched his nose and began to wear his clothes.

He puts on his white dress shirt and buttons it up, makes a Windsor knot for his black necktie while adjusting it properly, donning a green forest vest and accompanying it with an ocean blue 1800’s styled jacket, same colored pants as his jacket and black shoes. Something that he didn’t notice before however is a cowboy hat that has the same colors as his jacket and vest.

“Huh? What is this?” The British man grabs the ornament for further inspection and turns it around and upside down. He doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary with the hat and assumes this was given to him as a welcome gift.

“Well, what do you know, they are quite kind giving me a new hat that has the same color as my suit and vest, this job might be better than I first thought! Although… The hat is kind of weird looking”.

Cavendish stares at the hat, chuckles and puts it on, adjusting it properly and checks himself in the mirror of the room.

He appears to be almost the same, just with the hat making him occur to be taller.

Before leaving the room he turns around and inspects the device that was mentioned before by the receptionist, as Cavendish looks into it it makes a quick full body scan on him and reveals that he has recovered the hardness of his bones, his weight returning to what it was before his space travel and his physical health in general being restored. This baffles Cavendish as he did not remove his space gear when going to bed.

“Wait a moment… How was any of this done to my body if I still had my astronaut suit on through the entire night!? And I also had the helmet on as I didn’t know if there was going to be oxygen in this place or not!” He shouted to the machine with his mind riddled and tangled, to his misfortune the device does not respond in any way, making it seem like he just shouted to a brick wall.

Frustrated at the fact that he can’t comprehend how the cells were able to get into his body, he leaves his room and heads to the main hall of the hotel where he is greeted by the clerk one more time.

“I hope you had a good night’s rest Mr.Cavendish, and that you enjoyed your stay in our hotel”. With a cordial smile he approaches Cavendish outside his desk and Cavendish salutes the man.

“Well, I did sleep very tight yesterday, the bed was very comfortable even with all of my space gear getting in the way, although I don’t quite understand… How was the machine in my room capable of putting the cell things you mentioned the night before?” Still puzzled Balthazar questioned the receptionist, who was very confused.

“What do you mean? You… You didn’t remove the astronaut gear at all…?” The vest wearing gentleman asked with a tone of concern.

“No, I did not, as I have said before, I didn’t quite know until today if I could be able to breathe or if I would be thrown off to space due to the low gravity of this planet”. Cavendish spout out, raising his eyebrow, he did not understand what was the problem with what he did.

“Mr.Cavendish, for the cells to work, you needed to remove your astronaut gear since yesterday! Otherwise they wouldn’t be able to enter your system and fix your bone hardness, weight gain, blood cells and other aspects!” The man chided to Cavendish, who didn’t seem to take his words kindly.

“Do you not understand? I have said it three times already, I did not know if it was safe or not to be without the space suit! Same for the helmet!” He adopted a pose where he had his hands rolled up into knuckles and let them rest on his hips, as well as leaning forward slightly to confront the receptionist.

He himself rebottled with his own comments in an attempt to defend himself.

“I thought you would have already figured out that we use some kind of special enhancements in our clothing and such to make it so we don’t have to be wearing that heavy gear at all times! In fact, I am quite surprised you didn’t even notice that you still look the same as when you arrived here!”

That is when it hit him; Cavendish did indeed not change at all. He still had that extra weight from his space journey and he wasn’t feeling in top shape as a whole. He noticed as well that his height was most irregular, he was taller than usual.

“Oh… Oh my, you are quite right, I guess my clothes were able to hide my current defects, I am sorry sir”. The brit apologized realizing his mistake and how he shouldn’t have gotten so aggressive and cranky with the clerk.

“It’s okay, you are still getting used to our technology and such, just… Try to take it more peacefully Mr.Cavendish”. Said the receptionist with a more relaxed voice and wanting Cavendish to calm down. The brit does so and decides to head into Mr.Block’s office, not before the hotel worker calls out for the man from yesterday. “Toodles! We need a cell injection!” The short statured worker arrives incredibly fast with a syringe containing what seems to be a green liquid. Cavendish’s expression is now of fear and needs to ask the clerk what is in the injection.

“E-excuse me, what is this shot for? What does it have?” Swiftly, the man comments on what the purpose of the shot is. “This is an injection containing the regenerative cells, unfortunately this process is slower and will take 2 days instead of 1 to take effect, but as we know you need to go with Mr.Block this is the fastest way we have to apply the cells, and I didn’t provide you with this before as I said before, I assumed you would just take off your astronaut suit while going to sleep”.

Thinking on this explanation, Cavendish decides to trust the man and provide the injection to his arm. The clerk rolls up the Brit’s jacket and shirt and gives him the shot on his arm. It barely hurt and was a quick experience and after the process was done, Cavendish unfolds his jacket and shirt, while the receptionist says one last word before Balthazar leaves. “Thank you, and take care Mr.Cavendish”.

In response Cavendish says the following: “I will, and thank you for your service” and leaves. In a few minutes flat he arrives at the aforementioned establishment and enters through the door.

“Good morning Cavendish”, Mr.Block said while sitting on his desk, Cavendish returns the greet with one of his own.

“Hello Mr.Block”. He puts his hands behind his hack and looks around the place as he didn’t really get a good look at it last time he was here. Analyzing the environment he notices some cages for the convicts, some stairs going down, and a person sleeping on a chair, with their feet being supported on one of the desks. With this in mind, Cavendish asks his new boss for the partner he is going to get.

“So, you told me yesterday that I was going to be getting a partner to accompany me in my job, would that partner happen to be here? Or could I be told who is it going to be?”

The curly haired man stands up and walks alongside Cavendish to the person who is resting in the chair, implying that is going to be Cavendish’s new partner. “Yes, your partner is here at the moment, and he is considered one of our best, if not the best worker here”.

With amusement and expectations, Cavendish inquires a bit more on this prospect.

“Really? So, you wanted to give me one of your best agents or whichever you call them here, to match up with my resume?”

“That’s right, and we also think it would make the process a lot easier for you, he is an experienced law enforcer and would teach you the basics pretty easily and quickly”. Finally reaching the individual, both of the men stop and stare at him, while Mr.Block introduces Cavendish to the man.

“This man right here is Vinnie Dakota, and he will be your new partner”.

Glaring at the man while he still sleeps, Balthazar is shocked and dazzled. It’s the same man that approached him yesterday with the orange shirt and black cowboy hat, and now being able to see him even closer, he notices that the man was wearing sunglasses with yellow colored temples and brown shades, and is snoring loudly.

“What the!? HE IS MY NEW PARTNER!?” Cavendish yells not watching for his voice volume and in doing so, he wakes up the brown haired man and makes him fall off his chair.

“Wha-wha-wha!?” He looks left and right alerted and frightened from the screaming, and after he is done with his desperate search for the sound, he turns his head up and sees the two men glaring at him.

“Oh… It’s you”. The olive skinned man said upset and not pleased at the sight of Cavendish.

As anybody would be, Mr.Block is confused and asks the pair a question.

“Wait, you two knew each other?” He queries the two who answer at the same time.

“No” With this response both stare at one another and huff while swaying their heads with a twist, looking at the opposite direction.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter, Dakota will be your new partner and with this I will explain and provide your equipment”.

Mr.Block heads into a locker which has Cavendish’s equipment and he places it on his desk, Cavendish walks to the desk in order to get a closer look and observe what kind of gear he is going to use.

“First off, we need to start with your guns” The black shirt marshall says while grabbing a pistol, it appears to be very normal looking. “This is a Colt Peace Maker, I imagine you might know of this weapon’s existence due to your previous endeavors, but this version is much more potent and accurate, although it still has that defect of not being good at long range, for that we have another weapon that help you with that”. He lets the pistol rest on the desk and instead gets his hands on a new type of gun.

It is a laser pistol with a futuristic but rustic appearance, it has a slim resemblance to the colt pistol he was just presented with, but it does sport more futuristic and weird features. Gears coming out of the gun while they turn and with them some light rays come out from them, a chamber with lights being the bullets, a gold coated trigger, silver and gold made barrel with a valve in the middle, showcasing a green line.

“This gun is a laser pistol, its name is: XM50P. it is based on the Colt I just showed you but has many features, the bullets themselves are created from photon energy and the weapon uses the gears to make it’s functions. The weapon’s main source of energy lies on the grip handle” To demonstrate this aspect of the pistol, he takes apart the lid that was in the grip while also having the gun be upside down.

This reveals that the compartment is full of a goopy, blue substance.

“Do you see this substance? This is what we call: Laser goop, it is meant to be for your laser equipment’s energy supply, they rely on this material to work properly and we will provide you with tons of containers with it” With his finger he signals at the containers which appear to be laboratory like in their structure and look, they contain the same material found on the weapon and it is quite a few of them. 15 of them to be precise, and they are in medium size, of the size of a thermos to be precise, and makes Cavendish look in awe.

“Good heavens… How were you even able to get a hold of this… This matter? I have seen goop and such but… Never like this, it Is so glowy and… Strange” The brit asked while looking into the substance, he is marveled at the entire thing and wants to know even more about it.

This will have to wait unfortunately, as Mr.Block answers with a straight sentence.

“We get it from some icy mines and caves, but you will get to ask all of that later, I need to keep explaining what each thing does”. The man after he said these words proceeds to cover the gun’s grip again with the lid and fully secures it in order to not any of the material come out.

Going through the items, he picks up a watch that is bronze colored and looks to be pretty regular.

“This is a watch with special features, it can project images and video, tell the temperature, display a compass, time and day with Mars day cycles taken into account and give a small electric shock in case of an emergency to stun an enemy or creature, as well as being able to emit very high frequency sounds to distract”. He hands it over to Cavendish and he inspects the device, besides what was mentioned he doesn’t really seem to notice anything else from it, so after finishing his analysis he wears it on its wrist.

Following up is a grappling hook with a steampunk like aesthetic in brown and tame yellow colors, it seems to use claws for grabbing whatever is needed.

“This is a high tech grappling hook, it has a wire made with high voltage electricity, extremely sturdy, it will never break”.

Also handing it over to Cavendish, the brit stares at it and becomes attached to it somewhat, he loves the design and keeps it safe in one of his pockets.

Continuing with his exposition, Mr.Block shows him some small containers, in the same size as medical containers for pills.

“These are capsules, push the top of them to open them up, they are capable of containing food, water, tents and first aid kits. Each one has a label that signals what capsule it is do try to use them in consideration”.

As much as Cavendish is getting interested on the technology, to him it starts to become a bit daunting, he has used various gadgets before as an agent but not so complicated and futuristic, it is on a whole new level.

“I… Appreciate that all of this is being exposed to me sir but… I don’t quite know if I will be able to handle every single piece that has been provided to me properly, they are so… Advanced and special with what they can do!” Cavendish voiced his unease at the entire situation while still continuing. “I have handled various gadgets at the same time before, but… Never with this kind of technology… It is so out of my league”.

Cavendish opened his mouth again to try and speak again, but he is immediately interrupted by his recent new partner.

“Oh come on, you will handle it just fine, you just need to learn with time, and I am gonna have to help ya out with all of it, you are gonna do okay, so stop complainin’” Strangely enough it seemed like this Dakota person was annoyed at Cavendish’s worries, but also tried to give some encouragement, to give Balthazar some confidence. This backfired.

“Oh, so I’m going to be taught like a baby to handle my equipment by you? Do you really think that lowly of my capabilities!?” The blond man stood up for himself, thinking he was being made fun of, while the brown curly hair sheriff replied.

“Pfff, see? That’s why I just can’t stand you UK people, always trying to make a fuzz of everything and thinking you don’t need any help, I try to be nice and this is what I get”. Dakota heaved feeling insulted from his attempt for hospitality towards the Brit, and he crossed his arms with a frown.

“Hey! Cut it out you two!” Mr.Block ordered with an authoritarian voice and the two of them stare at one another in silence and disconcert.

“We need to cover your last piece of equipment Cavendish, your hat”. With this statement Cavendish’s face alters to perplexity, why would his hat be part of his equipment?

“So, you have noticed that your trim has various buttons and a main piece in the middle right?” The man pointed out with his finger and Cavendish touched the main silver piece of the hat. Doing this action created a glass made space helmet that began from the hat’s brim and went down to his neck, fully creating a sealed helmet.

“W-What the!?” This impacts Cavendish to his core, he was already feeling uncomfortable with how much the technology is outside of his range, but now he just saw his hat create a helmet from thin air, and he is staring at the glass directly with his hands starting to reach into it.

He touches it insistently to make sure this is actually solid, and that this isn’t a dream. It isn’t, this is truly happening.

“H-how!?” He yells out in excessive commotion.

“Hehe” Dakota takes a chuckle, as he is already used to that experience and advancements.

As the last pieces of equipment for Cavendish, Mr.Block laid out to him the details for this particular item.

“This is going to be your helmet as the outside of this town will not have a single bit of oxygen, only in the confines of this place is where you can breathe at ease. The way it works is that the middle silver piece contains another container, although this one has oxygen inside of it and it will be able to last for 3 full days without a single replacement. You just need to open it up by pressing either side of it”. To test out this feature, Cavendish does what he has instructed and pushes the left side of the silver piece and it opens up a hatch inside, where the oxygen container resides and Balthazar takes it out from it’s compartment to look at it.

It is a black and blue colored container, the oxygen cannot be seen in any way as the cylinder item is fully sealed. Finishing his examination he puts it back to where it was.

To clarify and explain the last points of the helmet, Mr.Block speaks once more. “By the way, you won’t need to press the button every single time you wanna use the helmet, it’s automatic by default and will have sensors that are going to detect if there’s enough oxygen in the place you are approaching. If it doesn’t it’s going to activate on it’s own, the button is meant to be for whenever you need to press it in case the sensors fail to detect anything”. Almost being done with the explanation, Mr.Block places his hands behind his back and instructs Cavendish on 2 more tasks.

“Now, press the silver button right next to the main silver plate, on the left”.

Following the directive of his boss, he taps the mentioned button and the view of his helmet gets changed to something similar to the sight of some binoculars, this applies to every single area of the helmet.

“This is your binocular mode, it basically makes your entire helmet be able to work as a binocular in case you need to look from afar, or if you need to zoom out and see more important details that you might have missed, you can zoom in and zoom out by rotating the button left and right”. Cavendish decides to not test that feature at the moment and instead disable the mode by pressing the button again, as it was making him get somewhat dizzy.

“Oh… Oh goodness, that… Made me feel woozy”.

Ignoring this comment, Mr.Block wants Cavendish to test the last 2 features of his hat. “Proceed to push the right button at the right side of the main plate Cavendish, after that we will almost be done with your equipment explanation”. To finally end the demonstration proper, the Brit touches the button and it changes the hat’s view to a type of night vision.

“Wow…” The blond man said astonished, what could be the last feature if he has a binocular vision and a night vision included?

“As you can see, that is your night vision mode for dark places or having to act in the night, and lastly, if you turn around the button you will get access to thermal vision”.

After the drawn out exposition and demonstration, Cavendish makes a sigh of relief and deactivates the space helmet.

“The two of you should now head down stairs, as that would be the perfect place to test the guns and Dakota could also teach you other things about their aiming and such”. Mr.Block looks into the staircase that goes underground and Cavendish does the same.

_ Testing out the guns? Then that must mean that is a shooting area or something alike, maybe I should try to test my shooting skills, as I have never handled a gun before… _ Balthazar retrospect on his head while Dakota just says with a sigh of annoyance to follow him.

“All right then, let’s go Caven-whatever. We’ll see whatchu are made of”. Getting ahead of himself, the man heads down the stairs and Cavendish follows in quick pace.

“H-hey! Wait for me!” He spout out.

Now Cavendish will be able to showcase his adaptability and dexterity in the shooting area, the question is: Can he be capable of exhibit high amounts of skill? Or will he fail miserably due to his lack of experience? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, things are definitely looking up to be quite interesting huh? Hopefully Cavendish can pull through!
> 
> Edit: The design described here is actually from a friend: Charmmy! I loved it so much and asked for her permission to be able to use it. She didn't really oppose and was very nice about it. I will link her twitter so you can also give her a follow https://twitter.com/CharmmyColour


	4. One Bullet At A Time

Going down the steps found in the Marshall’s office, Cavendish and Dakota have a discussion on why Dakota has been apprehensive and aggressive towards him.

“So, I must ask you again… Why do you appear to hate me or my country? What is the reason?” Cavendish queries in search of an answer, and the brown haired man dodges some parts of the question.

“You wouldn’t understand, no one from your country tends to understand what they end up doing here, what they bring upon themselves, and it annoys me to no end, I just don’t want any of you to arrive here, and almost everybody here feels the same”. It was an answer, but not a full response, and it upsets Cavendish.

“What do you mean I wouldn’t understand? And why do you put my country in a conglomerate like that? What did we do to you or this planet!?” He insisted with his arms crossed and frowning with frustration. Why is it so hard to know such a simple thing?

He receives no response and they keep going down the stairs. As he always tends to do when he doesn’t get an answer, Cavendish tries to reach for his own conclusion.

_ What could we have caused on this planet for supposedly being despised by a vast majority of the community? Or is this just an exaggeration from this Dakota individual? Did one of our folks do something to him? Is it some kind of agenda? Childhood trauma? I just don’t get it! To my knowledge, I have been one of the very few people to have been sent to space! What other people have planted their feet in this weird and advanced society!? _

BANG!

His train of thought is explosively derailed. He jolts and his head whips around to find the source. 

It was the sound of a pistol being fired. They have arrived at the aforementioned shooting area which appears to host various people shooting at different objects and items. Some glass canteens, pots, soda bottles, pieces of paper shaped in a silhouette with targets where vital organs would be, some wood logs and crystals which seem to be the same ones that are used for the creation of the laser pistol’s goop. Each area is completely enclosed with sturdy bulletproof glass panelling, protecting the marksman and any bystanders from stray shots. 

“Well, here we are, this is for practicin’ your shootin’ and precision, we have a lot of people come here very often, as they want to make sure their aim is up to what we consider “acceptable”, which is: If you can hit at least 3 of your targets with your Colt, that’s good enough for us, and since we’re here to practice, you’re gonna need a belt for your guns.” The orange shirt man goes into a section for grabbing supplies and immediately comes back with a gun belt possessing 2 holsters, one for each weapon and some earmuffs.

“Here ya go, just put the belt on.” He hands over the gun belt and Balthazar wears it alongside his pants.

“Huh, feels pretty comfortable.” The Brit comments while adjusting it to make it suitable for him.

With another move of his arms, he offers the earmuffs to Cavendish, still not thrilled with his company.

“And these are for your ears, the gun shots can get pretty loud so it is best you wear ‘em. If you look at the other guys they are also wearin’ their own earmuffs.” He was right indeed. Cavendish took a glimpse at the other deputies and they were wearing earmuffs to mitigate the intense sound.

“Well, thank you.” Responding with a condescending and pretentious tone and glare, he takes the item and places it on his ears, the sound is barely noticeable now and in fact has become quite relaxing, as now it sounds like a very soft and far away thunder. Cavendish is immediately overwhelmed by nostalgia, for his beloved Britain. He remembers how much he enjoyed walking in the rainy evenings and nights, with the thunder soothing his mind and giving him peace.

With his eyes closed Cavendish just does not move, he is lost in his memories and is completely distracted from his training. However, before he can zone out any further, the glass behind him is knocked. It is Dakota attempting to get him out of the trance.

“Hey! Stop messing around in there and start shootin’!” He yelled out to the Brit, who was disoriented from being snapped out of his reminiscing .

“All right, all right!” Cavendish grumbled discontentedly. Grabbing his Colt 45 he aims at one of the objects in front of him.

BANG!

The shot misses, and it makes Cavendish blush slightly.

After he changes his aim to another one of the items he fires another bullet.

BANG!

He misses again. He only has 3 more bullets to shoot as his gun was loaded with only 5 bullets in order to make sure he wouldn’t fire a 6 th one by accident. Starting to feel irked with himself at missing his targets he tries to concentrate. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.

Collecting himself, he takes another shot and to his dismay, he misses once again. Unable to contain his frustration he shoots the last remaining bullets and not a single shot hits.

Everybody in the vicinity notices and looks at the Brit, wanting to ridicule him.

“Wow, he missed every single shot?” 

“Isn’t this supposed to be the best agent from the UK? If he’s so good why can't he hit a basic target?”

“What a joke! He isn’t as good as people said!” Were some of the comments that could barely be heard from the crowd the man’s partner noticed what happened with Cavendish.

The blond individual in the meanwhile hears every single thing, as he stares blankly at the wall and items in front of him. His head is becoming muddled with darkness and fuzziness, he isn’t processing anything properly, only a single thought repeating in his mind:

_ I… I failed… How could have… I am the greatest agent… H-how… I… I… Am I… Useless…? I missed every single bullet… These people are laughing at me… And laughing… And laughing… _

Cavendish gazes upon the ground with his eyes wide open, the fact that he was unable to hit a single shot has him shaken to his core. What if somebody is in danger and they need him to shoot somebody and he misses? What if the future is in his hands and has a single bullet to spare, and does not hit whatever it is needed to stop a catastrophe? As he enters more deeply into this state, he blocks out anything else, even the screams of his partner for his attention.

“Hey! Balthazar! Wake up! It’s not as bad as you think! Come on! Snap out of it!” He knocks on the glass with some force. Coming to grasp that the man is not hearing his banging, he knocks even harder and shakes the place where Cavendish is standing, finally waking him up from his trance.

Cavendish cannot help but turn his head around to the American man and stare in disbelief and distress. With some will power he is able to leave the shooting area walking very exhaustedly. Even though he used almost no physical energy on the training, he feels drained and out of breath. With a stumble he begins to crumble, and his brown haired associate grabs him before he hits the ground.

“Wow wow wow! Hey! are you all right?” He asks concerned. Cavendish is barely able to look into his eyes.

“I… I failed…” He mumbles with sorrow and disappointment.

Dakota looks at him sadly, wanting to show a bit of empathy and comprehension, and also removes Balthazar’s headphones.

“Hey… It’s okay, nobody becomes an expert on the first try.” The man told Cavendish while he was still getting a hold of his environment. “Are ya gonna be alright?” Dakota asks, displaying worry for his partner.

Cavendish, attempting to look strong, stands up on his own. He was still dazed from the whole experience, but his pride cannot be lost on this day, and not in front of his peers. “I am going to be fine, although… Tha-.” Before Cavendish is able to finish his sentence, he is rudely interrupted by one of the deputies.

“I have heard so many rumors of you yesterday, with talks of you joining us as a sheriff, and this is your performance? Weren’t you supposed to be the greatest agent in Britain or some junk like that!? Was that a lie or something?” The woman said very frustrated and expressing how she thinks Cavendish’s accomplishments were a lie. Obviously this upsets him and he bites back with his own statement.

“What do YOU know about my accomplishments!? My feats!? I was able to stop a war from happening thanks to my intelligence and sabotage skills! The enemy fell right into where we wanted them and cut them short from their evil plan! If it wasn’t for me… THE WORLD WOULD HAVE BEEN DOMED. YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW MUCH I HAVE WORKED TO ACHIEVE WHAT I HAVE DONE. ALL OF YOU ARE STUPID!”

The looks of shock and disconcert transform into frowns of disapproval and resentment, nothing is said, but the pressure could be felt from a mile away.

Only one thing is heard however, an annoyed sigh. “You British folk sure are fun to have around”. Said Dakota slightly annoyed at Cavendish’s comment, he is angry and in the heat of the moment but he didn’t really think of the words he said, he doesn’t think they are stupid but he was very much ticked off.

“Hmph. Like that matters. We are supposed to look into the other places of this whole town aren’t we?” Balthazar mentioned with a prideful and judgmental attitude towards his partner.

“I mean… Yeah… Bu-.“

“But nothing, we are going Mr.Dakota, I do not wish to be associated with this… Filth. Where is the exit?” Feeling like the king of the UK, Cavendish almost ordered to know where is the exit of this room besides the stairs they came from, and Dakota delivers that answer.

“It’s on the back, we just need to get up the stairs and exit from the other side.”

Without wasting any more air, Cavendish walks with his hands placed on his back and with a high posture.

Dakota follows and tries to get a word in. “Hey… What they said to ya was definitely mean you really shouldn’t have do-.“ Cavendish now interrupts and does not want to keep the conversation going.

“Shut it, I do not care for what you think, I know what I have done and what I have not done, none of you know anything about me, and you told me everybody did not want me here didn’t you? What is the point of trying to discuss if you already hate me without even knowing me?” Cavendish said embittered, the comment really got to him and isn’t going to be easy to fix. The Brit’s partner also appears to have his limits with tolerating this attitude.

“Ugh, see? This kind of attitude is what makes everybody hate UK people, nobody wants to hang out with you because of how… How uptighty and offensive your words end up sounding, seriously, filth? That is very, very mean and she did have a point. You are supposed to be the best agent in the whole country and you missed all of your shots?”

Grinding his teeth, Cavendish rebottles in an even angrier state. “I have… Told you… Already… I was not… Focused on the usage… Of guns…”

Not understanding his point, Dakota insists. “Why?”

Losing his temper again, Cavendish shouts out to the man as he is just shaken and broken somewhat. “BECAUSE I AM NOT A WILD ANIMAL THAT KILLS WHATEVER IT MOVES! ALL RIGHT!? I HAVE STANDARDS UNLIKE YOU PEOPLE AND I START TO WONDER WHY QUEEN HILDEGARD SENT ME TO THIS HELLHOLE IN THE FIRST PLACE!”

They were able to finish climbing the stairs and end up in an open area, fortunately there weren’t any spectators to see Cavendish’s display of rage and distress.

Balthazar’s statement didn’t even phase the brown haired individual however, he just stares blankly and does not show any kind of emotion, like he does not care at all.

“Whatever you say man, but we are out and we need to see the other places of the town. Ya need to get used to this place, it’s your new home and wherever you like it or not, you are gonna have to get used to it. And just so you know, I am not enjoying your company too much either, I’m getting yelled at for… Just speaking to ya, I probably deserve it but you really shouldn’t be taking it so deeply. And well… We just don’t like people like ya.”

Not wanting to get himself into another fuzz of emotions, Cavendish just takes a deep breath and only says one thing: “Just… Show me the blasted town and get this over with”. 

With the tone being very somber and quiet, the pair walks into their first visit, the general store. They both enter through the door and see the store runner in his post.

“Hello Dakota, how are ya doing today?” He questioned Dakota in a cordial and well spirited manner.

“Hey Straus… I… don’t know, this is my new partner… What was your name again?” The orange shirt man asked to the Brit, who hissed and told him one more time.

“Balthazar Cavendish, and you better not forget it this time.” He utters with indignation.

“Yeah yeah, I hear ya” Dakota says to his blond partner and looks at the store keeper. “Well, there ya have it, his name is Cavendish.” He glared.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you Cavendish.” The clerk tells Cavendish and the Brit answers with a very dry tone. “Yes, very nice to meet you too.”

Dakota gives him a glare of disapproval and discontent. Even with the ambience being tense, the man still offers them his services.

“Anyway, what are you boys here for? Are you just looking around? Or do you want to buy something?” Dakota begins to inspect some of the items sorted around while he replies to Straus. “Nah, I’m just showing this guy around so he can understand what you end up selling in this place.”

With this in mind, Cavendish also investigates whatever wares are being sold on this general store and finds some interesting novelties.

For example, he finds a capsule that contains a whole and fully cooked turkey, this would make said dish appear already prepared for consumption. He knows this information thanks to the label of the capsule. Another thing he is able to find are coffee beans, corn, wheat, barley and oat, rice and rye grains. A bunch of food in fact is in this store, although he has noticed something very strange.

He approaches some apples and finds that there are blue, purple and orange colored ones. This really disturbs him and he feels the need to ask the store operator. “Excuse me good man, what kind of apples are these? I have never seen them before in my life and I would like to know more about them.”

The man turns his head towards Cavendish and gives him the answer he was looking for.

“Those are blue apples, which taste like bananas, orange apples taste like oranges and the purple apple…” He stops for a moment to make reminiscence of what the purple apples taste like, or what their purpose is. “Hmmm… Oh! I remember now, the purple apples are not to be eaten, they are used for poison, we don’t quite know what is in them but they are able to intoxicate somebody really quick.”

This shocks the Brit, why would a general store be selling these apples and be lumped together alongside the consumable apples? “What!? Why would you sell these poisonous apples alongside the edible apples!?” Cavendish reclaims, understandably so, as the apples were now just mentioned as being poisonous.

“Hey, come on, what’s the big deal? It’s just apples pal, nothing to lose sleep over, it’s probably fine.” Dakota gets a bit annoyed, is he really complaining about some apples? They are just apples.

“Don’t you understand!? The purple apples are poisonous; they could kill anybody from a single bite! Or maybe not but they are still a very dangerous hazard! What if a child picked one of them up and ate it!? Or somebody that is blind, or color blind! Or a tourist! This IS a big deal! Somebody could die from this kind of mistake, or negligence!” Balthazar explained his posture and is attempting to raise awareness of the situation. Dakota in response does retrospect and begins to process what the blond just said.

“You know… Now that I think about it… Yeah, that’s kinda bad… I didn’t really think about it that way, a boy or a girl could just pay for the apples, give them a bite because they look colorful and like the blue or orange apples and end up getting killed. That is messed up.” He actually agreed with Cavendish on this topic, it is a very dangerous item to have alongside the edible and safe apples.

“You see good man? Just because they are “apples” doesn’t mean they should be lumped together! It is in the wrong label and it should be changed!” He directs himself towards the store keeper and reaffirms his point.

Unfortunately, the man did not take it well at all and instead feels like he is being insulted. “What do you mean I should change them!? They are apples! But ooh noo, here comes the British man who does everything right, telling everybody to do as he says, because he’s the king! The greatest! How about you just go back to your stupid little planet and leave us alone!?”

Cavendish had something to say, but he is abruptly interrupted by his partner. “Hey! Shut up and listen! Those apples are dangerous! I have seen many of us use it for darts, bullets covered in this stuff, noxious gas now that I remember! And you put them alongside the apples that we eat!? What if those apples are now toxic!?” Dakota yells with passion, even if he doesn’t like Cavendish, this is an occasion where he is right, and the brunette will not put up with this kind of behavior towards something that should’ve been addressed a long time ago.

“Fine, I’ll change them to the poisons section, they are the farthest from the food and other items.” The store clerk mumbled and went ahead to change the apples to the area where they belong.

“Let’s go Cavendish, we need to see other places, I wanted ya to see the weapons shop.” He tells Cavendish as he was heading to the door and going outside. In order to not cause any more problems the Brit leaves alongside his partner with not a single word coming from his mouth.

As they walk towards the artillery based location, Balthazar cannot keep his thoughts to himself anymore and decides to talk with the brunette.

“I… Um… Thank you, for… Agreeing with me back there, I really appreci-“

“Hey, don’t get it twisted, just ‘cuz I agreed with ya doesn’t mean we are gonna be buddies all of the sudden. I did think it was unfair how that guy was treating ya when you were right about the apples, and it didn’t even come into mind until you mentioned it. You do care for others, but like I said, it’s not gonna make me want to be your friend.” Dakota states with a serious tone in his voice, and this makes Cavendish show his coldness.

“Very well, we are just going to be working partners and nothing else then, but before we end this discussion I do want to note something about you”.

Curious on what this important thing could be, Dakota lets the British man say his note. “Go on, I hear ya.”

“Even though you are quite uncaring for various things and have been an aggressive individual, you were able to see the mistake of having those poisonous apples be alongside the other ones, and that tells me you can accept mistakes and learn from them, as well as standing for what you feel is right. I respect that and it shows me that we can be a decent team in the worst case scenario. That is all.”

Although they aren’t in the best terms, the pair gave compliments to one another, understanding the good points of their own personalities and how they could work together as a team. They still do not like each other however, that may become a possibility in the future, it might not. That is not their main focus at the moment, what they are looking forward to is the weapons shop. Luckily for them it wasn’t far off from the general store and arrive rather quickly.

Inside they are able to see various types of guns, shotguns, pistols, rifles and their laser focused counterparts, even some grenades. Some people appear to be browsing through the artillery items and notice the pair, with some raising their hand and salute Dakota. Nothing was directed for Cavendish however.

“Well, what do you want to look at first Cavendish? The shotgun section? Search for more pistols? Being honest, I think you could want a rifle so you can practice your aim better, and they can be pretty stealthy too, from what I heard you are pretty good at that kind of stuff right?” Dakota giving some hospitality, he offers Cavendish to see whatever aisle he Is interested in and he responds with a direct statement.

“I would like to see the grenades section, I am quite curious to see what type of technology is handled here for them, but I do have to ask, what money are we going to use to purchase those items?” Balthazar’s question did have some merit to it, he never got explained as to how they would end up paying for their expenses.

Dakota remembering how much they got, decides to explain with no excuses or sugar coating about their budget. “Oh yeah… About that… Well, the government has had to deal with tons, and tons of bandits doing robbery and such, so… They had to give us a small budget, like… Super small. We can barely get us 2 new guns or whatever we might want, we do have supplies for our travels though so it shouldn’t be too bad.”

This baffles Cavendish, as he was expecting to receive better treatment and a sizable budget. “W-what!? Small budget!? But aren’t you one of the most upheld authorities in this planet!? And what about me!? I am the greatest agent of the UK!” He exclaims to his partner, who just shrugs and explains.

“Well, I didn’t really need that much of a budget for my own gear, and… We kinda had to change something about your… Nationality.”

Even more puzzled and now frightened Balthazar asks his associate what is he talking about. “W-what… What does that mean? W-what did you do!?”

The brunette rubs the back of his head in shame, preparing himself to get screamed at by his partner. “We… Kinda had to change your nationality to let you work as a sheriff here, so… Instead of being from the UK, now you are a martian.”

Seeing the horror on the Brit’s face was enough for Dakota to try and act. “WHA-“

Cavendish was going to scream but is shut down by Dakota covering his mouth with his hand. “Shhhh, I know, I know, just don’t yell will ya? People are looking at weapons here and they might end up shooting a bullet or activating a grenade by accident.”

Cavendish is annoyed at how he was abruptly silenced and gives Dakota a glare. With the intensity of his eyes Dakota understands that Cavendish wants him to remove his hand. He does so and Cavendish complains. “You did not have to do that, what if your hand is dirty? I don’t know where it has been!”

The American just proceeds to roll his eyes and insist on them moving forward. “Come on, it’s not that bad, let’s just keep looking and see what we can get ya all right?”

With resentment of being lied to the Brit agrees. “Very well, if we can get a new type of weapon it would help with my training.”

He starts to walk alongside his partner in the shop, and asks him one more question. “You said that we should look at the rifles section?”

Dakota turns his head to Cavendish and confirms. “Yeah, I think you seem to be a rifle guy, you would like to snipe in a distance right? In case we need to do some stealthy stuff, you could try to do that kind of stuff and end up killing a guard or something and I could enter and smash everything in there.” Analyzing the proposed strategy, Cavendish has a small sense of trust in Dakota. He does agree to some extent to what he said but not fully.

_ I do like to tackle things with brain over brawn and go for some stealth in my attacks if I were to do them but… Having this man handle all of the brute force work? That seems… Unfair to me, he would expose himself so much to get shot, I wouldn’t want to have my partner go out like that if I ended up failing to take down a target. I guess it is a situation of seeing how it turns out in practice…  _ The Brit thought to himself. He was deep in thought until his brown haired companion calls for him. “Hey! Cavendish! Don’t just stand there and come here!” Following the man’s words Balthazar resumes his stroll with him while they check rifles and stop for a moment.

“Hmmm? What is this one?” Cavendish points at a rifle in specific and Dakota inspects it alongside him.

It is an old fashioned sniper rifle with a brass scope with a brown and gold aesthetic to the scope, trigger and grip alongside a silver metal piece for the barrel. They approach the salesperson that is in charge of the rifles section and Cavendish asks him for the item. “Excuse me, what are the details about the gold and brown sniper rifle? I was interested in testing it out.”

The saleswoman switches her attention to Cavendish and answers the Brit’s query. “Ah yes, it is the SupScop, one of the most affordable and best options for low budgets as it can have good aim, can last for quite a bit of time without being repaired or getting a check up and ammunition is going to endure for 100 shots.” Impressed by the descriptions Balthazar inquires a bit more on the technology and Vinnie just has a very faint smile on his face with seeing the man be so delighted and Dakota begins reflects on his mind about his partner.

_ Hehe, just look at this guy, he is so eager to find out more about our tech. I am pretty sure they didn’t have this kind of stuff back in the UK, and he definitely wants to learn more about our world. Maybe he isn’t like the others… No Dakota, that’s way too early to say, I barely even know him, he could very well be like the others… He has a lot of their same attitude and fanciness towards stuff. Although… He was right about the apples, but he has been such a pain, seriously, missing all of his shots back at the practice? That was just sad. And he was also very defensive about me asking for why he didn’t really use guns before… It must be a pretty strong reason. I guess I’m just gonna have to see what happens, but so far he doesn’t seem to be too bad. _

The clerk’s explanation ends and Dakota’s partner wishes to speak with him. “So, what do you think Dakota, after what we heard do you think this rifle could be good?”

Completely unaware of what was exposed or said before, he just agrees with the Brit in a non caring manner. “Yeah yeah sure, it does look pretty and I think it fits ya you know?”

Cavendish does not really believe in Dakota’s comment as he assumes he was distracted with something else and did not listen to the explanation. This makes him upset and confronts Dakota about his grievance. “Dakota, did you even listen to what the clerk said at all?”

The brunette responds annoyed to Cavendish’s comment, as he knows he did not pay any attention at all and makes up an explanation. “Look, I don’t need to listen to all of that buzz because I already knew this was gonna be the weapon that you would want, some new guys have started with it and it’s pretty standard stuff, as well as affordable and practical, capiche?” He crossed his arms as he exposed his point at which Cavendish did understand what he meant.

“If that is the case, I apologize Dakota, I didn’t quite think of that possibility and just assumed you didn’t listen or know about this item.”

He turns around towards the saleswoman and decides this is the item he will be getting. “Then I will buy this rifle with whatever we have, could you pack this for me madam?” The woman nods in approval and just hands him over the rifle, presses a button and it transforms itself into a capsule, being fully portable. Balthazar blushes slightly in embarrassment and rubs the back of his head with a laugh. “Hehe, thank you madam, that definitely makes things way easier and faster.”

She responds with her own sentence and wanting to finish the conversation in a good mood. “Yeah, having most of our gear in these little capsules is so easy and practical, and it makes my job quicker. In any case, I wish you a good day and to see you soon.”

Cavendish makes a tip of his hat in gratitude and begins to walk in Dakota’s direction. “Come on, I think we should try to get you something new, don’t you agree?” He tells Dakota with a soft expression in his face, he never really saw him be so calm and cordial; he is apparently having a good break with all of this.

His partner decides to follow his recommendation and strolls alongside him. “You know what? You might be right, I actually didn’t really think about it but I might need a shotgun, I am kinda close quarters combat and I haven’t really used them too much, only from time to time whenever I didn’t have my main pistols. So let’s go and grab one.” With this the pair take off to the shotgun section of the shop with tons of them. There are ones that look very futuristic with neon decorations, other ones with very rustic touches like wood, bronze, tin and copper.

Dakota is able to spot a black and brown sawed double barrel shotgun and is rather surprised by it. “Wow! Hey Cavendish, do you see that shotgun!? It looks so cool!”

Cavendish hearing the excitement in the man’s voice decides to peek at the weapon. It has a very brash and aggressive appearance with its colors and shape, definitely an item that fits Dakota’s personality like a glove. Interested on why would Dakota want something like this he questions him. “This looks… Rather confrontational and rough and it makes me raise one question in my mind… Why would you want to get something like this if you are meant to be a figure of security and trust?”

Dakota with the most prominent ease in the world and motivation to spare explains why he wants this specific firearm. “Well, you ain’t wrong on that front. I do have to portray trust and that I can protect the townsfolk, but the thing is that it can also work in my favor whenever I am facing a group of bandits. They are gonna look at me with some concern or fear, they are gonna think: “Oh no, this guy looks super serious with that gun, he really means business if he’s using something WE would use.” You know? It’s to put them into panic mode and make them mess up and do mistakes, and… I kinda like these type of weapons too not gonna lie, they are so sweet and practical! With that type of gun I can use it with one hand while I use another gun or a rope, or something else with my free hand, those are the reasons why I would like to have it.”

Being impressed by the brunette’s exposition Cavendish proceeds to give him a compliment. “That was quite involved and well thought out for an answer, you really do seem to be interested in being a sheriff for this town and go a good job on it. I wasn’t… Expecting such an elaborate response from you Mr.Dakota.”

The endorsement from the Brit certainly felt uplifting for Dakota, even if it was from a British person which he tends to hate. He receives it with open arms and acknowledges it. “Nah, it’s nothin’ to be proud of, I just told ya why I wanted the gun.” Remembering why they were in that section in the first place Dakota grabs the gun and shows it to the clerk. “Hey, I wanna buy this shotgun, how much would it be?”

The man behind the counter inspects the gun and says to Dakota the price. “It’s gonna be 200 dollars.”

Dakota is shocked at the amount and lets out a yelp. “What!? 200 dollars!?”

Cavendish is also concerned as he thinks Dakota’s expression means that they are seriously making a dent on their budget and makes a suggestion. “Mr.Dakota, we already have these pistols, I think it is good enough for us to get by, we don’t really need another firearm if it costs that much.”

Dakota shakes his head denying Cavendish’s suggestion and goes into another brief explanation. “No, I definitely gotta have another gun because the pistols aren’t gonna cut it for some occasions, they have some limited range and firing rate, the shotgun can spread damage and be very powerful, we are absolutely gonna get it if we want to survive.”

Not really sure on what to do, Dakota thinks deeply about his situation. He knows he needs that weapon because his pistols are quite worn out, they still work just fine but aren’t what they used to be in terms of optimal performance, but the shotgun is expensive for their budget. In a moment of brilliance however, he remembers something that can help him and Cavendish make more money for their expenses without having to rely on Mr.Block to give them money. “Okay, give me the shotgun, I’ll pay ya right now.”

Puzzled and alarmed, Cavendish asks his partner why is he buying the item. “What do you think you are doing? I thought we were on a tight budget!” The Brit exclaimed and Dakota to soothe his mind explains his plan.

“No biggie, we can work as bounty hunters for a little bit of extra crash, that way we will be able to pay for our stuff!”

Cavendish seems disoriented by the term and does not really understand what a bounty means. “What? What is a bounty hunter? What are we supposed to do on that to gain money?”

“Well, first off a bounty hunter is someone that chases an outlaw/bandit for a sum of money, like a reward for getting the bad guy. We can either return them dead or alive, it depends on what the bounty specifies and some other junk. But we wouldn’t really be able to say we are law enforcers since… It’s illegal to be a sheriff or a deputy and also be a bounty hunter.”

This baffles Cavendish to his core, as he clearly heard “dead or alive,” does that mean they can kill that person and it would still be rewarded? “What!? What do you mean dead or alive!? Why would we want to kill the bounty!? This is outrageous and inhumane!” To his dismay and making his mental state worse, he sees that Dakota does not flinch at the thought of killing a human being.

“Meh, most of the time they end up being terrible people that doesn’t learn one way or another, sometimes it’s better that way Cavendish.” Balthazar becomes quiet after this comment, he does not want to make another remark on such a delicate topic and lets his associate continue. The disapproval on his face just cannot be hidden however. “Cavendish, it’s just something to get a quick buck off, besides, a lot of people do it on this place in general. It ain’t somethin’ to be ashamed of. Regardless, I’m gonna buy this gun and we can sort out the details later, okay?”

The Brit just nods in coldness and lets Dakota continue with his activity. He himself just feels he ruined Cavendish’s good mood and feels embarrassed but also annoyed. Why would he get so upset over bounty hunting? It’s so common here and it’s the first time he even heard about it, so he shouldn’t get so uptight about it.

After finishing his purchase, he starts to head out alongside Cavendish into whatever place they might want to see next, until Dakota spots something that caught his eye. Something really bad.

It’s a kid holding a pistol like if it was a toy while his father is busy talking to one of the shopkeepers and not paying attention at all. The brunette can only see red after witnessing this travesty and in order to solve the situation he hands over his newly acquired shotgun. “Hold this for me, I’ll be right back”. He said in a very serious and ticked off tone, like he is about to lash out in violence.

Cavendish looks at him perturbed and looks at what is happening. “Mr.Dakota, please, let me handle this, I was able to do so just fine with the man attending the general store, I am quite sure I am able to do the same here.”

Dakota just glances back at Cavendish and shakes his head while responding to the man. “No, You ain’t cut for this one. Just hold this.” He hands over his shotgun and runs towards the child, grabbing the gun away from the infant who just looks at him confused.

“Hey! What do ya think you’re doing!?” Said the father of the kid who demands an explanation for Dakota’s behavior. What he receives is a bunch of yells and screams.

“Whatdaya mean what am I doing!? Your kid was playing with a gun and I just stopped him from pulling the trigger! That’s what I did you dumbass!”

The curse word did not help the situation a single bit and has in fact made it worse. The man begins to howl at Dakota also filled with rage. “So what!? The gun is unloaded! Every single one is unloaded unless it’s tested! And even on that it’s in another area completely aside from the shop!”

The short man is just getting filled with more rage and frustration by every word he says and continues with his rant. “I don’t care if it was unloaded! The kid shouldn’t be playing with them in the first place! What if it was loaded and he shot himself in the face or somebody else!?”

The toddler stares at the pair screaming at each other and begins to sob and cry. Cavendish looks at the poor child and frowns in sorrow. Hearing a child cry is not pleasant in the slightest and it appears that Dakota also heard the boy.

“Okay THAT’S IT. Cavendish, take the boy to the Marshall’s office.” Dakota tells his partner in an angered state while he turns his head to the boy’s father and glares at him with extreme hatred.

Balthazar on the other hand is somewhat shaken by the whole situation. “But what about the legal-“

“I DON’T CARE. TAKE THE BOY TO MR.BLOCK RIGHT NOW.” Dakota shouts to the Brit, who understands his associate is not in the right mindset to talk right now. So he decides to follow the order and take the child in his arms and leave to Mr.Block’s office without saying anything else.

Obviously the toddler is distressed and he swings his arms back where the weapons shop is, opening and closing his hands like if he was trying to reach his father’s arms again. Cavendish notices and attempts to comfort the toddler. “It is going to be okay, your father and my partner are just… Having a nice and… Civilized discussion, nothing to worry about.”

He knows that is not what is happening at the moment, but he can’t think of a better lie to tell and he just tries to keep the child close to him. A comfortable grip is a nice thing that can calm a child, and it seems to work at some level, as the toddler stops crying and sobbing but still appears to be alarmed and worried.

In a few minutes Cavendish arrives at the Marshall’s office and enters. He is greeted by Mr.Block who is confused about the Brit’s arrival. “Cavendish? What are you doing here? And why did you bring that child with you?”

Cavendish in a calm tone responds to the questions at hand. “I am terribly sorry to arrive like this Mr.Block, but there was a situation going on in the weapons shop and I had to take this child with me. If you don’t mind, could you keep an eye on him? As I still need to sort out the situation that is happening at the shop.”

Reluctantly the curly black haired Marshall agrees and lets Cavendish exit from the office. “Fine, but just try to have that whole mess under control all right? After you got that figured out, tell me tomorrow or something as I was gonna take a nap. I have been busy with more paperwork as some delinquents were arrested today and I haven’t really had any rest.”

With this, Cavendish exits the office and heads back into the weapons shop, but before he can enter he sees Dakota come out from the door, with some bruises and dirt on his clothes.

“Mr.Dakota!” Cavendish yelps in worry towards his partner. “Are you all right?” He asks, scared.

“Yeah yeah, I’m fine, just a few bruises here and there, I had to teach that man a lesson after what he said…” He moves his head around and stares at the man through the window. The man is lying on the ground with blood coming out from his lips and nose.

He is being helped by medical staff to treat his injuries and Dakota dusts off his clothes and hands.

The British gentleman after looking at what Dakota did, he feels the need to scold him for his actions. “Now look at that mess! The poor man is bleeding just because of your short temper! Couldn’t you have tried to solve the situation in another way!?”

Dakota rebottles to his partner’s scolding and reclaims with his own argument. “He brought alongside him a KID who is only 2 years old Cavendish! That is extremely irresponsible and while I try to figure out stuff in a “controlled” manner, the kid could’ve gotten himself hurt or hurt somebody else! I HAD to act like this or the guy wouldn’t be able to get it through his thick skull!”

Analyzing the whole dilemma and how urgent it really was, Cavendish does understand Dakota’s point and concedes. “If you put it that way… You are correct Mr.Dakota, there really wasn’t any other alternative if this man was being this aggressive and confrontational towards a situation where his boy could be in danger.” He reaffirmed and afterwards gave a faint smirk to the brunette. “You… Really do care about this place don’t you?”

“Of course I do! Why would I want to become a sheriff if I didn’t even care about this planet? What would be the point? I ain’t like one of those guys that just grabs the job because they only care about the pay or just having a job in general. This was my decision.” Dakota stated with words coming from the bottom of his heart while looking at the tall man right beside him.

Considering how much they have dealt with today, he decides to take a break and continue tomorrow. “Hey, what do ya think we continue with this stuff tomorrow? We would only need to see Mr.Block tomorrow and the barn to see our horses, then maybe take a ride with them and get familiarized with the animals and environment outside of town, and I kinda want to rest in the saloon.”

Balthazar does indeed feel somewhat tired and would like to rest but on his own, so he agrees but wonders about one thing. “Very well, let us take a break. I would like to take mine in solitude but I only have one question, where should I go to rest?”

In a spontaneous comment Dakota recommends Cavendish a location. “Hey, why don’t you go to the hotel? That could be a good place to rest by.”

Cavendish would have said yes to the suggestion, but he just realized that he and Dakota literally don’t have any money to spend for a hotel room. Or at least Cavendish doesn’t. “That would be a marvelous idea but… I do not have money for the room. I really did spend it on my rifle.”

Dakota shows Cavendish that he only has enough money to buy himself a few drinks at the saloon but not enough for a room either. “Me too, I only got this bit for the saloon stuff so I am probably gonna end up sleeping on a tent.”

An idea springs into the Brit’s mind. “A tent… That is a good idea Mr.Dakota, I will have to spend my night in a tent. It shouldn’t be too bad, and it could help me get used to sleeping on one. That will be it then, I might as well leave this instant and get some rest.”

Before departing, Cavendish has one more sentence to say. “I hope you get a good night sleep Mr.Dakota. Today was… Eventful I must say, you are quite the interesting individual and working with you will be a new experience for me. I just wish for us to succeed in whatever missions we are assigned for and protect this place. I might not like it just yet, but it is our job to uphold the law and keep peace of this planet and its people, so with that I take my leave. Good night.”

With a final sentence, the Brit departs and just searches for a place to rest with his tent. He is able to spot a cave that is not really occupied and decides this will be his sleeping den for the day.

Meanwhile with Dakota, he enters the saloon and takes some drinks. This is his way of relaxing besides conversing with his colleagues while playing a game of poker or making towers with the poker cards. He spent quite a lot of time in the establishment, and when he gets out he sees that it is pretty late, the night is quite dark so it must mean he’s on 11PM or 12AM.

“Oh… I guess I didn’t even look at the time, it’s so dark now. I should probably head to hit the hey or I ain’t gonna wake up in the morning.”

As he was walking down to a place he knows he can sleep by, he catches a glimpse of a shadow. A shadow directing itself into the open area exit of the shooting facility located in the bottom of the Marshall’s office.

“What the…” Dakota is confused at what he has just seen but he thinks it could be an outlaw, so he draws out his pistol, ready to shoot at any moment.

He chases down the shadow as it submerges itself deeper into the establishment. Dakota loses it for a few seconds and keeps descending the stairs at a quick pace while trying to not make any loud sounds.

Now being on the bottom floor and knowing the shadow must be near, he takes cover on one of the walls close to the steps and takes a peek around the corner. He spots the shadow but it was someone he already knows.

It’s Cavendish, who got into one of the free spots for shooting training. He pulls out his pistols and starts to shoot at the objects that are meant for practice.

This has Dakota shocked. He has never seen anybody do this before, just practicing their shooting at this time of night. He figures Cavendish is gonna try to pull off an all nighter and it is why he went to sleep way earlier than what Dakota was planning to do. He wants to say something but he does not want to interrupt his partner, he looks so focused and determined on this task. It just gives Dakota a bit more to reflect on.

_ Wow… This guy is really doing all of this just to improve? Nothin’ else? Cuz I don’t see any other reason as to why he would end up spending his time like this. It’s… Kinda admirable, I never saw any other sheriff or deputy do something so intense. Maybe he isn’t like those other guys after all… _

Deciding to keep watch of his partner until he gets tired, Dakota sits on the stairs and watches him from the corner, not making a single sound and sees how Cavendish improves slightly with his skills. Now he was able to knock down a target with the normal pistol and 2 targets with his laser pistol. He seems to notice that Cavendish has a better handle with the laser pistol than a regular gun, but he is going to try tomorrow and fix that. In just 2 hours Cavendish grows tired of pulling the trigger so many times and begins to head back.

Dakota catches a glimpse of him walking back to the stairs and he heads to the exit in a quiet but swift manner. He gets out and hides on the wall right beside the door and sees Cavendish leave.

He wipes the sweat out of his brow and goes down where Cavendish made his shots, goes to the supplies section and replaces the broken items that the Brit shot down with new ones, to make it appear like nothing happened.

Afterwards he gets out and finds his usual location for sleeping. He sets up his tent and lays on his camping bed.

It was quite the agitated day for the pair, but maybe tomorrow can be more calm and relaxing, maybe not and it could turn into chaos. They will have to find out the next morning and experience something new in that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this took so damn long. But sometimes I got some writing blocks and such so I couldn't really get any progress done, but Chapter 4 is finally here! And I do hope you enjoyed it as I spent quite a lot of time writing it and ironing it out. It really shouldn't have taken me this long, There was a lot of info getting thrown into this chapter too and I think you guys are gonna like Cavendish's and Dakota's relationship evolution (or at least I think so). Also be on the look out for Chapter 5! It's gonna be a wild ride!


	5. A Different Breed

The sun comes out and it hits Cavendish’s tent with its beautiful rays of light. It is a warm and soft light to wake up into and he begins to awake from his slumber. He gives out a pretty calm yawn and speaks to himself. “Aahh… What a good night sleep… I feel so refreshed and full of energy, even if I ended up sleeping in a cave.”

He gets up from his camping bed included on his equipment, presses a button on it, and it transforms into a capsule once more. Cavendish puts it inside the tent alongside most of his equipment, except his pistols and hat. Afterwards he also stores the tent into a capsule and keeps it in one of his suit’s pockets.

With a normal pace, Cavendish walks out of the cave and begins to return to the town. He is briefly interrupted by a beep coming from his wrist watch. “Hmmm? Am I getting called? If so, I wonder who it would be.”

He looks into the watch trying to find the answering button and eventually he presses it. The person who called him is Mr.Block.

“Oh, hello Mr.Block, how are you?” Said Cavendish while directing to his boss, who seemed to have his normally serious expression and wanted to talk to Cavendish.

“I’m doing fine. I have called you from your wrist watch because I need to speak to you and Dakota, so I want you to head straight into my office. We are going to be discussing about your performance at the shooting area as I heard the results from the other deputies that were present. That is all for now, so don’t go wandering around and come to the office.”

He hangs up and Cavendish appears to be somewhat anxious and confused. “About… My performance…? Oh dear… I just remembered about that…. I did not get a single shot in…” He mumbled in nervousness, although a thought does appear to ease his worries even just a tiny bit. “No, that isn’t completely true, I did hit one target with a laser… And I practiced my skills yesterday, so I must not be so bad after all! Right?”

He questioned in doubt and covered his mouth with his palm in a pensive manner. Is he going to be fired from the position he is at? Would they give him another chance? Unfortunately for him, there is only one way to find out: Going to see Mr.Block and asking himself.

He walks swiftly to the office and apparently Dakota received the same message, as he also arrived at the same time as Cavendish. “Oh, hello Mr.Dakota.” The Brit greets his partner while Dakota returns the salute.

“Hey, how ya doin’?” Dakota says with a soft smirk, but afterwards frowns attempting to be distant.

Cavendish did not notice at all and just saw Dakota’s frown. “if you are going to put that face at me after asking that question, you do not need to know how I am “doin’” or do I want to.” He says with a condescending tone, he really didn’t appreciate Dakota showing him that kind of expression and Dakota becomes somewhat offended by it.

“Jeez, I only asked how ya doin’. Why do you always act like this eh?” Dakota responds crossing his arms and showing his distaste with the Brit’s attitude.

The pair afterwards just prefer to not say anything else and head to the office. They are greeted by Mr.Block as he is standing up looking at a screen. “Ah, so you have finally arrived.” The curly haired man speaks as he approaches both lawmen.

Dakota just appears to be pretty chill and relaxed, not really worrying about getting called by his boss, while Cavendish is trying to appear calm and serious but deep inside he is completely anxious and dreading that he might get fired. He is trying his best to not shake from the sheer amount of pressure he is experiencing. To make matters even worse, Mr.Block refers to Cavendish first.

“So Cavendish, I heard about your performance in the practice session from yesterday and from what I have gathered, it was one of the worst performances to ever be seen in our facility and you apparently were experiencing an… Attack?” The Marshall declared and questioned Cavendish, since he doesn’t know the details about his attack.

Balthazar himself is struggling to even stop shaking and cannot properly make words come from his mouth. He knows this is extremely awful for his image, he needs to answer now. He takes a deep breath and makes an effort to explain what happened in that situation. “Yes, I suffered an anxiety attack, since I felt so… Lost and shook. I never experienced such a degree of failure before sir. Those emotions clouded my thoughts and stability, so I crumbled in front of everybody, I couldn’t control it. There was one person however that helped me gain some control however.”

Immediately, Cavendish twisted his head and gazed upon his partner, who got caught by surprise and with a jolt he uncrossed his arms also feeling some pressure.

“Oh… Y-yeah, when he was falling down I… Uh… Helped him out and tried to calm him down.” Dakota declared with some awkwardness.

Reflecting on that event, Mr.Block decides to make another question to Cavendish. “Does that mean you have never ever handled a firearm before?” The tone of his query was not pleasant at all, it was like he was starting to judge Cavendish for his lack of knowledge around weaponry.

With no choice Cavendish responds with pure honesty. “That is… Correct, I never really had a handle on firearms, as most of my prowess came from infiltration, sabotage and espionage.”

Mr.Block raises an eyebrow, as he knows and understands those are good achievements, but he is used to seeing more physical or straight into the point actions. So he wants to give his opinion to Balthazar. “I was expecting to be an ace in almost anything that would come on your way Cavendish as you were the greatest agent in your country, but I guess not everybody can be perfect at everything. I will not fire you or punish you at all, since you didn’t really get the proper training and that can be fixed, but I do expect to see major improvements in your performance.”

That is somewhat encouraging, but alarming as well for Cavendish, he is not going to be fired! For now at least, he needs to improve, and fast. At the very least Mr.Block is being comprehensive about it.

Taking all of this into consideration, he responds to what was requested of him. “Thank you sir, I will try to improve my skills and attempt to address my… Anxiety problems.”

The Marshall’s expression did seem to change into something slightly softer but still strict. He did want to make a new order for the pair to complete too, so he directs himself to Dakota and proceeds to talk. “Dakota, since you have been with us for such a long time and I already trust you enough I want you to help Cavendish in whatever he might need help with. Starting with riding a horse as I imagine he also hasn’t really gotten the chance to ride one on his home country.”

Cavendish just stares in silence with that last statement, as he actually hasn’t been on a horse in any point of his life and has barely seen many horses on his time. With his glare he basically concedes his boss’s notion.

Dakota begins to talk and make something clear. “All right boss, I’ll train him and all, but just don’t expect to do everything for him okay? I still need to keep watch of my back, I ain’t a babysitter and you know it.” The brunette crosses his arms again and has a serious look on his eyes. He will not stand for incompetence from his partner and will not give him some sort of special treatment.

“Yeah yeah I get it Dakota. Either way, the two of you should head to the paddock close by to pick up your horses.” Mr.Block mentions and puts his hands behind his back. Cavendish and Dakota begin to head out of the office until they are stopped one more time. “Wait! I forgot to give you two something.” The Marshall says.

The two of them stop and turn their backs towards the black haired man. He takes something out of a drawer and shows it to Cavendish and Dakota. One of the items he pulled out from the desk’s drawer is a saddle bag, and the remaining are bandoliers with pockets. “These are to keep your capsules safe as I forgot to give these to you yesterday. I was so busy I didn’t even remember these were also part of your equipment.”

Balthazar evaluates which item he likes better and decides to grab the saddle bag from Mr.Block’s hand. He gives it a quick look turning it back and forth, it is a black saddle bag made out of leather and mostly pretty practical and simple. Dakota on his part takes the bandoliers, puts them on and adjusts the positioning accordingly.

The British and the American take a gaze upon each other to see how they look with their new equipment. They appear to be satisfied as Dakota thinks that saddle fits Cavendish perfectly and Cavendish thinks Dakota’s bandoliers make him look more menacing and dangerous.

“Hey… Uh… Nice bag.” Dakota spouts out while pointing at Cavendish’s sack. Cavendish also says a compliment to his partner while being visibly uncomfortable considering the way they met earlier in the office. “Thank.. You… Those… Things look… Good on you, they make you look… Menacing and… Um… Powerful! Yes, that’s the word.”

Mr.Block Is getting impatient and decides to make an order to the two men. “Hey! Quit foolin’ around and go to the paddock! The sooner the better for Cavendish to learn and be able to help!”

The pair make haste and head over to the paddock, which seems quite large and with enough space for 480 horses. The sheer size of the location does have Cavendish and Dakota impressed and interested in what they could be able to find.

“My my, that is quite a large stable wouldn’t you say Mr.Dakota?” Balthazar commented as he gazed upon the establishment and keeps walking forward admiring it.

“Yeah, it is definitely big and it should be! We have like 10,000 people around here, and that’s not even counting the people that aren’t from here!” Dakota says with some excitement as he apparently does like to have so many people around and be able to see so many horses in a single place. “I wonder if my horse is still fine, he has been with me for such a long time.” He makes reminiscence of his previous horse and with it his eyes get a peculiar spark, like an old companion that has been with him for a long time.

This makes Cavendish curious as he never experienced something like that before. Bonding with… An animal. “I must say… You appear to be rather fond of this… Animal Mr.Dakota. I do wonder what is that like however… I never got to bond with… Anyone really, my life was very programmed and monotone. Nothing was going on and…” As soon as Cavendish realizes how much he is letting out he decides to zip his mouth and not saying anything more. This is not how he should be behaving. He is supposed to be here only for working purposes and nothing more.

Vinnie on the other hand becomes disappointed. He was actually getting interested in the Brit’s story. “Aaawww… Why did ya stop? I actually wanted to know more about that Cavendish, it wouldn’t hurt to let some of that stuff out you know?”

The Brit just opens his mouth to clarify something to Dakota and make it clear. “I do not wish to say anymore, that topic is very personal and I would prefer if you didn’t inquire any longer about it.” He responds with a very dry and straight tone to make his point be as clear as water.

Dakota understands that people have their boundaries and accepts to not pressure his partner. “Okay, even I know there are limits to how much you can say. We are partners though, if something is bothering you, try to let it out at least. That stuff can get in the way of our missions and our team work, if we even have one.” The brunette expressed with some kind of concern for the well being of his associate and only shows hospitality.

Cavendish does not really say anything more and keeps walking and sees some people taking care of some horses inside a small barn.

Dakota seems to know these people and raises his hand to deliver a greeting. “Hey guys! Good to see ya!”

The young looking workers turn their heads towards Dakota and respond back. “Hey Dakota! How ya doin’!” One of the keepers said to Dakota and they make another greeting with a handshake. “What brings ya here?” The other worker asks Dakota raising an eyebrow with a smile, as they haven’t really seen Dakota in a few days.

Dakota looks back to where Cavendish is and answers with a smirk. “I was gonna show my new partner how to properly ride a horse, and I kinda needed a horse for him. As for my me I already have my trusty steed: Sock!”

The good mood is suddenly interrupted however, as a grown and elder man approaches Dakota to deliver some news. “I’m quite sorry Dakota. But Sock is not… With us at the moment.” He declares.

Obviously Dakota is shaken by that sudden comment and questions the man. “W-whaddaya mean? I-is he okay? What happened?” His voice quivers and loses itself.

The older man finishes what he had to say in the best manner he can. “He’s… He has gotten way too old Dakota. He cannot really come along with you anymore. I know he means a lot to you and maybe I should’ve asked you before I took this decision but… Your horse is now permanently retired. There aren’t any health problems going on or something alike. It’s just impossible for him to be alongside you in your missions. Sock will now be a therapeutic horse for people who need it.”

The blow was way less extreme than what he thought at first but Dakota still hasn’t taken the news too gracefully. He seems to be frustrated and saddened by the news. “Who told ya to do all of that stuff!? He’s my horse! He was practically my partner! Now what am I going to do without a horse!?” He reclaimed and huffed about the situation while Cavendish was just looking at his partner’s resentment.

He wanted to say something to try and calm Dakota down, but he thought it would be inappropriate at the moment, it could make things worse and not let him cool down properly. Balthazar has decided to keep his words to himself and be a bystander. On his eyes this situation is definitely a problem if he was so attached to that horse.

Fortunately for him, the old man has a solution for the situation. “I know Dakota, you are upset, but I do have something that could cheer you up and is going to be for your partner too.” He has a wide grin on his face that does indeed show joy.

Cavendish and Dakota look at the man confused and slightly startled, but they decide to stroll along. A few minutes pass until they are in the paddock again. They appear to be in a smaller area with some bits of grass and a pond on the right side.

The pair just seem to be confused as they can only see a horse in the pond, but it is somewhat far away to make out the horse itself, and in the grass there is a bush styled horse in the middle of the grass.

“Pardon me good sir but… Where is that special something you mentioned? I don’t see anything particularly… Interesting or special.”

Cavendish expresses his puzzlement at what he is seeing at the old man who just has a small chuckle and points at the bush horse. “If you are so sure about that, go ahead and touch that bush. You will be surprised.”

The Brit in incredulity begins to approach said bush. What could be so special about a simple bush? It doesn’t seem to be particularly strange looking or have some kind of flowers growing on it.

Wanting to touch it, he leans closer to the object and with this Cavendish receives quite the scare. The bush moved.

“WAAAAAH!” He yells in fear and bounces back immediately after seeing the grassy horse move. He keeps his feet planted and away from the horse and the horse moves normally. Like if it was alive and just a real horse. “W-wha… What is…”

It’s too much to process, the poor man almost faints from the revelation and Dakota watches his knees get weaker and shake. He was getting ready to help his associate out until he observes that the horse itself helps Cavendish grip onto him and not fall. “Huh…” He whispers under his breath with a peculiar feeling.

Cavendish however stares at the creature in disbelief and amazement. “You… You are alive… And you helped me…?” The horse just neighs at the man and his eyes are just glued to the animal. He also cannot keep his hands to himself and starts to touch the grassy being. He has noticed something special about this horse. Its skin is 100% made out of wood, so the exterior of the horse is filled with leafs and grass, while his actual skin is just sturdy and resistant wood.

Afterwards Balthazar pets the horse and it does not respond negatively to the petting. Cavendish instead of looking at it with fear just pets it with a small smirk on his face. Even though they have just met a bond has been made between the jocket and his steed. “I think I’ll call you… Shay. Yes… Shay.”

Dakota and the old man have been gazing upon them the entire time and Dakota just had the biggest smile plastered all around him. It is so nice to see his partner already have a horse of his own. This was what the old man meant all along.

The brunette does wonder where his horse is however. “Hey, sorry to interrupt ya with this but, where is my new horse?” He asked politely and the elder directs him to the pond. “Right over there, whenever your friend is done with his horse we’ll go there and get ya to know your steed.”

Cavendish spends quite a bit of time with his horse, petting it and feeling some comfort on the soft and brushy plant hair from the creature. He eventually realizes he has spent too much time enjoying himself and detaches from the horse. The animal itself just looks at Cavendish blankly, not really showing any discomfort or stress to his master.

Balthazar can perceive that his steed has told him something with just standing there not really doing anything else. That is: “I can wait for you, don’t worry.” With this in mind he waves goodbye with a smile and returns to the old man and Dakota.

“So, did you have fun?” Dakota asked chipper and playful as he found the Brit’s behavior with the animal very cute and amusing.

Cavendish for once read through the lines and answers vividly. “Indeed… Indeed I did, it was quite scary at first… I didn’t know how to react but then that… That creature just helped before I fell off and was rather charming. I… I never experienced something like that before, I didn’t interact with animals in general. I did not have a dog or anything alike. So to me the experience was new and… Gratifying.” Balthazar couldn’t help but let out a small detail about his life and he didn’t even realize until Dakota gave him an understanding smirk.

“I… Um…” He tries to clarify or make an excuse for himself, but Dakota does not allow him to do so.

“It’s okay dude, seriously. Letting some stuff out is good for ya.” He says with a comforting and genuine smile displaying honesty to his partner.

Cavendish appreciates the notion and speaks again. “Yes… You… You might be right, thank you Mr.Dakota.”

The pair look at themselves feeling a faint touch of solidarity and equality. But this moment is interrupted by the old man who reminds them what they are here for.

“Sorry to intrude fellas, but we are supposed to see Dakota’s pony remember?” The horse keeper says and Dakota is taken by surprise on what he said.

“W-wait… Pony?” Dakota asks puzzled and somewhat alarmed. _A pony? But… They are so small! How am I going to get on top of one?_

They keep marching on their way to the mentioned pond and are able to see the pony. It is a pony that has kelps surrounding the top part of its body, with a soft red color scheme for the kelp and completely covered in blue scales for his skin. The hooves of the animal are covered in kelp as well and also has scales on them.

The pony is standing on the pond with a somewhat angered face as it looks Dakota and this startles the cowboy.

“W-wow… Why does it seem so angry?” He asks the old man and he responds diligently.

“Hehe, I don’t think she is very fond of you Dakota. She was… Mistreated before and does not trust humans easily at all. We are barely able to get her in this pond to rest whenever she needs it.”

Cavendish does think all of this is really endearing, interesting and charming but he just has to question what is going on with these animals. “Excuse good sir, but I must ask you… Why are these animals here? Why are they the only ones of their kind? And well, any other details that you might want to add if you may. I need to know… These… Circumstances are just not normal at all.”

The senior understands Cavendish’s query and makes his best efforts to explain the situation, although he wants to start with some miscellaneous facts first, to ease a bit of the amount of information being dropped.

“Very well, I will tell you everything I know, both of ya. I do want to let you in on some less important details to not overwhelm you with the knowledge I am gonna say.” The old man keeps his hands behind his back and stares focused at the pair while they glare back with their full attention being taken by the old man.

“First off as it was very obvious, both of your horses are composed of different materials. Cavendish’s horse is 16.2 hands tall and is made out of wood and grass. Dakota’s pony is 13.3 hands and is mostly made out of watery substances with scales and kelps covering its whole body.”

Before he continues, he turns his head into the horizon like if his mind was trailing off in a path of remembrance and some sorrow.

“This horse and pony… Weren’t always this way, they were just normal animals, or the best normal that they could be in this planet.” The elder mentions and Balthazar has to dig deep into that aspect. “What happened to them?” He interrogates in worry and distress, truly not knowing what could’ve caused for them to transform into these mutations.

“Shay here… Was spending time with one of its riders in the woods, they were just on a scouting mission and were supposed to come back in 2 hours… They never did. So we set a search team to look after them and what we found was incredible. The person riding the animal was killed, most likely by an outlaw and was left there to rot. He was robbed from all of his belongings and we really couldn’t do much for them. The horse was definitely dead too and wasn’t going to get back up, until we witnessed a miracle… he began to rise, with its eyes fully blank and empty.

After he got up his skin began to change… It completely changed into wood, like mahogany wood and some plants and vegetation starting to grow on top of it. We tried as best as we could to keep it calm and make it trust us, fortunately it wasn’t very taxing for the crew and we took him back here. Since we never saw something like that happen before we ran some tests and analyzed what occurred to its body.”

The senior had some kind of shine in his eyes, like he was truly invested in his tale and was joyous sharing it. Cavendish and Dakota witnessing the man talk about the details just feel the same kind of energy. It is a contagious vibe and it makes their hearts warm.

The old man continues with his explanation as he pulls out a tablet from one of the pockets of his pants.

“When we analyzed and investigated the body of the animal, we discovered that a fungus from the forest infected his brain and miraculously revived! He was able to fully recover and get this wood made skin alongside the vegetation growing on top. We also experimented with cutting it off and on and it very much worked similarly to a bush that you cut in such a way that you create a form, we made things like cubes, stars, circles and other shapes.”

After he finishes this sentence, he turns his head to where Shay is and his expression changes into relief and hopefulness.

“The boy got another chance… And we couldn’t let it go to waste could we? We had to protect these 2… They are special, unique and one of a kind. We treat our horses and ponies with respect, love and care in general. It’s just that… They were so out of nowhere.”

Dakota reflects on the elder’s words and begins to wander about his own steed. _One of a kind huh…? I never… Had something like that before… I mean I had my own horse and all but he was mostly pretty normal, not anything out of the ordinary, he is special to me because I made a bond with him but… This watery… Slimy and kelpy looking pony is so much more… Different… Could I even take care of it properly…?_

Finishing his reflection he stares back at the pony. The creature does not like Dakota at all and huffs back with resentment, even though Dakota has not anything to it. “What’s the story with this one?” The brunette asked, wondering what could’ve caused for this animal to behave like this.

The old man sighs in anguish and sorrow. “She… She has gone through… A lot of stuff, mostly awful… Awful owners. She has been mistreated and abused as a normal pony. The owner was a rich woman that had 2 daughters, the two…” His discomfort and anger was quite visible and he tried to not say anything harmful or offensive towards the people he is describing. “These two ladies were fighting over who got to keep the pony and they bickered, screamed and scared the poor animal… They also used her as transportation and whenever she felt tired or sick… She was just “educated” and whipped. We heard about all of this because one of the butlers couldn’t hold his frustration and anger that he had for how he saw this poor pony be abused. We went on a rescue mission. We entered the mansion of the woman, the woman did not budge in giving us the animal in good will and… Force had to be deployed.”

The old man looked into the side still in sorrow and regretfulness. “The animal ran away… She was so scared from what was happening… We tried to chase her down and keep it safe but… She got distracted by looking back at us. She slipped on a rock and fell down a waterfall… When we got down we just saw her… Drifting in the water.”

Cavendish and Dakota look in shock at these news, they were not prepared for such a sad and traumatic story.

“Oh… Oh dear…” Cavendish lets out concerned and appalled, was this truly how life in Mars was for a lot of people? “That… That just can’t be real… Can it? H-how could somebody treat this poor animal this badly…?” He quivers in doubt and disbelief.

Unfortunately the senior will splash the Brit with a bucket of reality. “Unfortunately… It did happen, and it was just awful. We couldn’t really do anything to save her, but nature was kind enough to give this girl a second chance. The same thing that happened to Shay happened to her, a fungus infected her system and revived her. She… Transformed completely, even more than Shay. Her skin became slimy, with scales and her hair became this shade of red, alongside being kelpy. After she came out of the water her behavior was obviously not good. She kicked left and right. She also attempted to use her kelps as ropes to trap somebody and stomp on them. Who could blame her though?”

Vinnie after hearing the entire story felt compelled with a purpose. He would try to make his time with the pony a good one, make her understand that humans aren’t horrible beings that she should fear. “So… What do ya use to pet her?” He questions as he needs to get closer to the animal and at least attempt to touch the creature and see if he can transmit some love and compassion.

“Well, for that we use some gloves… Oh right! You are gonna need a saddle and riding gloves. They are also gonna be useful for reducing friction and other stuff.” The elder mentions as he walks where such items reside.

“Yeah yeah, just give me the gloves.” Dakota did not care for the saddle at this moment, he requires the special gloves. Hearing about all of this hit a cord in his heart that tells him this is what should be done. He knows the people at the paddock have probably tried this approach before but didn’t make it work. But he thinks he can.

The old man hands him the pair of gloves and Dakota puts them on. He tip toes towards the animal and she backs off, not wanting any contact with a human, at least if it wasn’t needed for her survival.

“C’mere girl, let me give ya some love.” Dakota widens his arms and goes for a hug.

The pony is absolutely not having it and throws out some kicks to Dakota, fortunately he was already used to horses kicking him and tanks the damage while getting closer. He succeeds in getting within range and hugs the animal.

“There girl… Look… I know you have been through a lot… But I promise ya, I ain’t gonna be like those other fellas… I’ll try my best to protect ya. I promise.”

Some people animals do not understand human language, that they cannot grasp it, that they cannot understand it, and that they might hate humans inherently. But that did not stop Dakota’s words to at least be able to calm down the strange and enraged creature. The pony ends its uproar and just lets Dakota touch her.

Since Dakota is so close to her that he gets covered in the pony’s slimy substance but that won’t stop him from giving this poor animal some well deserved love.

Cavendish looks at the scene mesmerized and touched. _This man… Really cares for others… He is just hugging that animal and getting dirty… He doesn’t care! What if he gets poisoned or something alike from hugging this beast? What if something bad happens!? He just… Didn’t care…_

Dakota probably spent just as much as Cavendish did with his horse and the pony seemed to be calm. When Dakota removed himself from her she looked at him confused. If she was expecting to be harmed or be yelled at. She didn’t understand why Dakota didn’t do any of that.

The brunette was just covered in slime but it seemed like he didn’t care at all, in fact he was just laughing it off.

“Hahahaha! Look at me! I look like I came right out of the swamp or somethin’! Haha!” It really seemed like he had a good time with the pony and he walks back to where Cavendish and the senior are. “I’m gonna have to clean my clothes now haha.” Dakota had the brightest smile on his face and generally seemed in a better mood.

“Mr.Dakota… That is rather… Disgusting…” Cavendish mentions and points at him with his finger, while also swaying his body away from the man covered in slime.

Dakota just has a mischievous grin on his face and approaches the Brit. “Aaaww come on, it ain’t so bad once you get used to it!” He makes an effort to try and touch Cavendish and have him all covered in slime too.

Cavendish is not very keen on the idea and backs away, using the elder as protection. “Have you gone mad!? Stay away from me! You are filthy and slimey! I do not want to get into contact at all!”

Like a good sport, Dakota has a good chuckle at Cavendish’s reaction and stops his behavior. “Ahahahahahaha! Oh man… That’s good.” He finishes laughing and wonder where he could clean himself. “So, where can I get this stuff off?”

The old man looks at Dakota and directs him to a small room. “In there, that room will just clean you up and you will look as good as new.”

“Thanks” Dakota says and heads to the aforementioned room to wash himself properly. It seems to be a room that releases water and cleanses whoever enters. The room begins to activate the water releases that are meant to be like shower heads and they direct their shots at Dakota while also cleaning up him with soap and fabric softeners.

Cavendish in the meanwhile just has another question to ask as this is seems rather odd to him. “Pardon me sir but… I have to ask you something very important.” He directs to the old man, who looks back at the Brit in expectation.

“Yeah?” He responds as he raises an eyebrow.

Cavendish recollects his thoughts and makes his statement. “You see… I appreciate you giving us these beautiful animals to take care of and to let us use their skills or whatever they can to aid in our missions but… How come nobody else asked for them at all? Wouldn’t they become big news? Wouldn’t other people want to keep these creatures for themselves? And if they did know about them, what did you do to stop bothering you about it?”

His questions were very justified and also smart in general and the senior can grasp why Cavendish even asked him all of this. Fortunately he has a pretty easy explanation for all of these queries and questions. “Well, it was quite easy to figure out actually. The queen got to hear about Shay and Dakota’s pony. Her orders were as clear as water: Don’t let anybody else get them. Only allow Cavendish and his partner to get a hold of them. A lot of people just didn’t want to mess with anybody from the UK or have to get in contact with them at all in order to get any access to the animals and she probably knew about the rocky relationship we have with people from Earth.”

Cavendish’s eyes widen and he is taken by surprise with the news. “Qu-queen Hildegard you said!?” He shouts out in astonishment. “She told you to take care of the animals and keep them reserved for us?”

The elder nods with his head and crosses his arms proudly. “Yup! We were able to keep them safe due to her orders.” He tells Cavendish with a smile.

“I see now… Thank you for explaining this to me.” The Brit shares his gratitude while offering his hand to the old man. He accepts and Cavendish’s mind is now able to feel in peace.

Dakota comes back from the room all cleaned up and even looks cleaner than what he was earlier. “Look whoo’s baaack.” Vinnie expresses with a goofy smile and Cavendish appears to be pleasantly surprised. “Well, I must say you look even more pristine than earlier. That room really did the trick hmm?”

The brunette shrugs with a grin full of playfulness and jubilant. “What can I say? I just do the basics. My clothes feel softer even! It was great!”

Balthazar just sighs in disgust and holds his head with his hand, to him this is sort of frustrating as he hasn’t really seen anybody that does not care for their presentation or hygiene as much as Dakota. Literally a few minutes ago he hugged a slimy pony and he did not use any protective gear of some kind.

Either way, Dakota reminds Cavendish of why they were in the paddock in the first place. “Anyway, we should start mounting our horses and stuff Cavendish.”

Cavendish realizes that his partner is indeed correct and they have to resume that operation. “Ah yes, you are quite right Mr.Dakota. Let us resume with our journey.”

Afterwards the pair walk to each of their steeds and start setting up the preparations.

Dakota is already set with his saddle on top of the pony. The object itself is now slimy on its bottom thanks to the pony’s skin and it will become hard to remove it later on. The cowboy takes note of this and lets out a chuckle. “Hehe, gonna have to give that a wash later on.”

He makes himself comfortable in the seat and makes sure the pony he is riding also feels comfortable. She looks to be fine although not very keen on the idea of letting a human be on her back. In spite of this, Dakota tries to give the pony a reason to smile with an idea. “Well, since you and I are gonna be on this together, I think you deserve a new name, don’tcha think?”

The animal just doesn’t appear to be interested in what Dakota has to say and stares upfront, basically avoiding eye contact. Dakota won’t give up so easily however and says what he has come up with for a name. “How about Spirit? You seem to have a lot of it in how you act and I feel we definitely share that. You have quite the attitude with people that you don’t like.”

“Spirit” looks back at Dakota still dazzled at this human. Why is he trying to be so nice to her? He really shouldn’t. She is just an animal.

In any case, she acknowledges that she has gained a new name and will respond to this name whenever it is said.

Cavendish in the other hand is struggling with putting his saddle correctly. “This… Darn thing… Agh!” His frustration is just built up enough to make him throw the thing into the ground. He does not like it when things don’t work easily or on how they “should” be working.

The senior was still around and he helps Cavendish with showing him how to strap the object properly. “Here, let me help ya out.”

Cavendish feels more at ease with seeing how this is done by an expert and thanks the man. “Thank you, you are very kind.” In a jiffy Cavendish gets on the saddle and contemplates at his horse and the sight ahead. “Wow… This feels… Odd, I am higher than what I have been used to.” He states while he gets a hold of the strap that is inside Shay’s mouth. “Very well then, onwards!” He points at the paddock with his finger.

His associate has other plans however. “Oh no no no, that is too easy Cavendish, we are going to the forest, that way you can actually get a good feel for riding and terrain changes.”

“The forest!?” The Brit grumbles as he does not like the idea at all. “But that sounds quite dangerous! There could be monsters! I also don’t know what could await us!” He is indeed right, he doesn’t know what awaits them and what they are going to have to do.

Dakota just gives him a reassuring smile and talks to him again. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine, since you are with me and I know this place like the palm of my hand!”

Cavendish is not very sure about this allegation but he doesn’t really have a choice. So he concedes to his partner’s plan. “Very well. You lead the way Mr.Dakota.”

With this, the pair head into the forest in an attempt to let Cavendish learn how to ride properly. He is most likely going to need the help as he almost fell off his horse in the very few steps he had taken.

What is going to happen with Cavendish and Dakota? Will they be able to have a successful journey? Are they going to be able to comeback into the town? Will a discovery about themselves be made?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you guys enjoyed the designs/descriptions for the horse and pony for Cavendish and Dakota, as well as their names! For any Dreamworks fans, you might recognize the name for Dakota's pony :P and I am so sorry I took so long, I still hope you are following this fanfic and posting about it gets my mood up! Just try to have patience with this little autor.


	6. Teachings of the Forest

Cavendish began to struggle handling his own horse since Shay stopped his pace and was only standing still. This annoys the British man and he throws a fit.

“Blast it all! Shay why did you stop!?” He asks his horse and Shay does not really respond or emote. It’s like he just doesn’t want to keep going.

Dakota finds his partner’s situation quite funny and has a small giggle. “Hehe, that’s pretty funny. You actually never got to ride a horse before huh Cavendish?”

Cavendish appears to not be in the mood for banter and gives Dakota a glare full of frustration. He didn’t even have to say a single word to give his message across and the brunette understands it.

So in order to help Shay keep going he gets an idea. “Hey, would you mind if I pony ya?”

The blond stares at him full of confusion and some concern. “What do you mean Dakota? You already have a pony. D-do you mean like… Mounting me!?”

Dakota facepalms in complete disbelief. _Are you serious…? Is this guy actually this dense?_ He stops his judgmental thoughts and attempts to explain what he means. “No, I mean to hook my pony to your horse’s saddle and help you out with getting Shay going again.”

“Aaahhhh.” The Brit says finally grasping what his associate wants to do. He gets closer to Spirit and Dakota ties around Spirit’s leadrope to Shay’s saddle and helps him start to walk again.

“Okay, let’s go Shay.” Dakota says as he pressed both of his legs to Spirit’s sides. This made the pony move forward and it also made Shay to begin moving again.

Cavendish is impressed by how easy Dakota made it look and has to compliment him. “How do you make it look so easy? You must have spent years and years of practice to be this… Skilled at riding horses Mr.Dakota.”

Dakota isn’t really a person that gloats and presumes about his skills, so he takes the Brit’s compliments with modesty. “Pff, come on, it’s nothin’ to really make such a big fuss about. I just know how to use horses. You apparently got to do a lot of stuff back in the UK though, your achievements seem way important than whatever I have done.”

Cavendish looks back at Dakota in doubt. He cannot possibly mean all of that considering how people in mars treat and see people from his country right? “You can drop the charade now. I know your people do not like me or my country. Just because we are partners we don’t have to like each other.” He pouts in indignation as he feels his associate is just playing around with him, not really displaying how he truly feels about him.

The brunette however is not being sarcastic on this subject. “Hey, your country did… Some stuff and we went through a lot of trouble because of that, but that doesn’t mean I can’t partner up with somebody from a different country. You seem nice enough to be my partner and even though you do annoy me sometimes, it really is not that bad.”

That felt way more honest and concise than his previous statement. To Cavendish at least. “You… Really don’t hate me like those other fellows?” He asks, incredulous yet intrigued.

Dakota lets out a shy smile and remarks again. “Not really, you do seem like you care for improving your own skills and learning new stuff. The other guys we had felt like the kings of the world, that they were uncontested in their fields and that they were the smartest people to ever live. Just… Having a lot of air in their heads. From what I have seen from ya… You appear to be different. This looks to be important to you, and you are taking it seriously. I can respect that, it’s just that… I tend to let things go by. For life to give me a flow and I follow it you know?”

Balthazar cannot grasp this concept at all. Go with the flow? What does that even mean? “I don’t quite understand. What do you mean with go with the flow?”

Dakota rolls his eyes and proceeds to explain in simpler terms for Cavendish to understand. “What I mean is that I just roll with whatever life throws at me. If it gives me money and I see it’s okay to take it, I take it. If it gives me a job I roll with it. If it gives me some food I roll with it. I don’t really have a routine or a schedule. I just do what I do and life does what it does.”

Even with the explanation this just sounds so foreign to the Brit. Not having a schedule? Or not having any idea of what to do for the entire day? “I am… Deeply sorry for saying this but… That sounds like somebody that does nothing at all with their life! Not wanting to do anything to better themselves? Letting life guide them through? It sounds so impractical and... Nonsensical!”

The brunette doesn’t really take any of his words to heart, it does appear to sound like somebody without anything to do. But that is something that Dakota appreciates. Having the liberty to do whatever he wants for the most part. “That might be true being honest but… That’s kinda why I like this place, besides being a sheriff I don’t really have to worry for much else. Don’t got a family here to maintain, don’t got anythin’ that I wanted or needed to finish. I am just free.”

“Free…” That really makes Cavendish reflect on his own outlook. _Was I ever free back in my country? Did I actually ever have a choice…?_ He ponders deeply.

Dakota notices how that has taken his partner into a retrospective state. They are just taking a walk around the place with their steeds, and Dakota is basically carrying him. So he figures he can let Cavendish take a minute to collect his own thoughts.

Minutes fly by as the pair trot along the desert like atmosphere of Mars. Suddenly, their helmets activate automatically and the two of them notice. This jolts Cavendish from his pensive state.

“W-wow! W-what happened?” Cavendish questions as he looks at the glass in front of him.

As Dakota was also curious on why this happened, he checks his wrist watch and gets the information he needed to know. “Oooh I see. The helmets activated because the air was starting to get thinner and thinner. Basically there was starting to be a lack of oxygen.”

That definitely explains why, although that does make the blond slightly concerned.

“So, does that mean… We are out of the boundaries of the town?”

“Yup.” Dakota says calmly. _Hmmm… Now that I think about it, I really should start to teach Cavendish how to handle his horse. I only wanted to help him out for a bit but he has to learn as soon as possible. Otherwise he might not be able to work with us properly._

He turns his head to Cavendish and tells him what are the next steps he will have to do. “Okay, so we got out of the bounds of the town, that means I had to pony ya for… 30 minutes. I feel that is good enough. You do need to ride on your own.”

Cavendish swallows saliva at Dakota’s statement, he knows he has to learn but he was barely able to keep himself from falling off and keeping Shay on track. How is he going to figure it out now? “B-but…”

“But nothing.” Exclaims the brunette. “Look, I’m gonna help ya out with this, you aren’t gonna be doing this alone okay?” He makes an effort to show his partner that he desires to help him and his expression shows it perfectly.

Cavendish, although still doubtful, concedes to Dakota’s notion. “If it has to be, so be it. What should I do first Mr.Dakota?”

Dakota thinks for a moment before deciding the first thing the Brit should do. Eventually he has an idea, but he unties Spirit’s leadrope first in order to begin. “Okay, so first you should learn how to handle directions first.”

Dakota signals with his hands to look at his legs and Cavendish does so still with a puzzled mind. “I want ya to look at my legs okay? This is important.” He makes a little tap to Spirit’s left side with his left leg and she starts to move diagonally to the right. “As you could see, when I taped my left leg on Spirit, she started to go into the opposite direction, this is because she felt some slight pressure from my knee and she wanted to “stay away” from that. This is not really hurting them or somethin’ alike. It’s just how these animals work.”

Cavendish is marveled at how easy that looked, so he tries to do the same with Shay. The pressure he applied however was not enough and it didn’t really make the horse do anything. “What the… Why didn’t you move?” He questions, irritated.

“You didn’t use enough power dude.” Dakota points out while he glimpses towards Cavendish.

Cavendish himself becomes flustered and tries to do the same again but with more power behind it, not too much however. This time the action works and it makes Shay move to the right. “That’s it! I did it!” He shouts in joy and accomplishment.

Dakota celebrates his achievement and shows his support for that small little step. “Haha! Yeah! You did it! That’s good Cavendish, small steps can feel massive in the long run, believe me when I saw this: You are gonna be a good rider in no time.”

The encouragement definitely helps raise the Brit’s self esteem and he appears to be rather happy even with something as simple as going to the right. The pair smile at each other and keep going along, with Cavendish practicing in the other direction and going upfront.

After testing the various directions for a bit, Dakota decides to introduce another concept for him to try out.

“All right, so far I think you got a little bit of tapping your horse and making him move to those directions, but you are gonna have to learn how to turn him around. So to be able to do that, you use the leadrope of your horse to maneuver.” Dakota makes a demonstration by tugging softly his leadrope to the right. This makes Spirit turn to the left, he does the same for the left and she turns around to the right. With technique and skill he also makes his pony do a full 360 turn and start trotting back.

“See? It ain’t too complicated, you just gonna combine your leg taps and leadrope directions to where you want your horse to go.” He expresses with a confident grin while looking at his partner. He also does consider that Spirit was also doing part of the demonstration as well. “Oh, and you were doing great, Spirit. You really can handle yourself pretty nicely! Quite the smart girl.”

Spirit in response huffs with her snout, being prideful and not accepting fully Dakota’s compliment. The key word is fully, because she did appreciate it but it is hard for her to cope with it.

Dakota just rolls in eyes innocently thinking that she will eventually warm up to him and gives her a brief pat.

Cavendish begins to wonder if he can even do all of that in one go, it should be impossible for him. “Um… I don’t quite know if I can do anything that you just portrayed… Mr.Dakota.” He says with insecurity.

The brown haired man shakes his head in disapproval. Not in a bad way. “No no no, I know you can do it Cavendish, seriously. It ain’t that hard and I’m gonna tell ya what you did wrong if you do mess it up. No pressure okay?”

Dakota might not be as profound or intricate with his words as Cavendish is, but he sure as hell can motivate you to keep going. Cavendish takes his words and uses their power to try and see what he can do.

First he grabs his leadrope and tugs it to the right. He makes sure he does the tug as close as to what Dakota showed him before and it works. Shay turns around to the opposite direction, afterwards Cavendish taps both of his legs and makes him move forward.

“Yes! Yes! Keep going Shay!” His mind is rushing with excitement even at the slow pace he is going. Just the thought of starting to handle his horse at this basic level is showering him with joy and triumph.

Dakota has the widest smile in his face he has ever had. This is just a fun experience for him and it makes him think of how he never got to experience this before.

_Haha, he is just… So fun to look at, it’s like I’m teaching a kid to ride his bicycle for the first time. I never really got to teach anybody to ride their own horse, most of them had the background, learned on their own or got classes and training. That was when we had the money to do anything of that, but now it is kinda rough for that kind of thing to happen. Either way I am having fun with this guy. I guess UK people can have silly moments sometimes._

Even with all of the help and advice that Dakota gave him, Cavendish still fell off from his horse from time to time, Shay disobeyed him and Spirit was also not cooperating all the time with Dakota but after 2 hours they finally made it to the forest.

It looks like any forest that would’ve been on Earth, although some of the plant life seems to be different.

Cavendish as he is riding Shay notices what appear to be this planet’s roses and stops momentarily to inspect them from afar. “Mr.Dakota, look! I think this is what would be a rose n your planet right?”

Dakota looks at the plant and it does indeed seem similar to a rose, although the stem of the rose is completely black while the petals are green colored. “Oh yeah, those are Mars roses. They are… Not seen in the same light as normal roses from Earth.” He explains with some discomfort.

The Brit is baffled at this statement, it looks similar so why would it be different? “I don’t follow. Why would these be treated in another way? They look almost the same but with different colors.”

The cowboy takes a brief sigh and responds to his partner’s query. “These are used for… Funerals and tragedies. Since you know, they are mostly black and such. When you gift this rose to someone on Mars it means that either you don’t wanna see them anymore or… Something bad is gonna happen.”

As dense as Balthazar is, he was able to catch what Dakota means by that last sentence and becomes slightly pale. “I… I see now… And what happens if I just happen to see it?”

“Nothin’ really. It’s only when you actually pick it up and give it to someone or leave it close by to a place you hold dear, like your house, somebody’s house, a establishment. It could mean some things when you leave it in a place. It can mean that you feel something is gonna happen in there and want to prepare them, that you are going far away and separating from said place, like a last goodbye. Or the worst outcome… It works like a farewell to… Uh… Everything.”

The poor blond becomes more and more frightened by the implications and he just has to ask what it means. “Fa-farewell to… Everything?”

Dakota does a slicing motion with his finger close to his neck as he looks at Cavendish. Balthazar himself tries to cover his mouth in surprise but just ends up hitting his helmet instead.

“Tha-that is…”

The brunette’s eyes appear to show some bits of past and gloom, although his sunglasses don’t let Cavendish fully see what he hides in them.

_Does he… Know so much about this because he… Went through some kind of turmoil himself…? I… I want to know but… That could be a lot of weight for him to deal with at the moment. I didn’t quite think he would’ve…_

Like always any type of discussion where Cavendish can see somebody’s past, or at least glimpses of it he continues to ramble on and on about it. He will most likely keep thinking of this topic when he goes to sleep or has time to retrospect in silence. The time is not appropriate however, and he stops his mind from running wild in theories and suppositions.

He just limits himself to make a small comment in an attempt of closing that topic for the moment as it is a depressive subject. “That is rather unfortunate, I do hope that those who had to go through that eventually reach peace with themselves and with whatever happened.”

Vinnie shows Cavendish a soft smile and appears to feel the same. “Yeah, I do hope so too Cavendish.”

As they keep pacing with their horses to find a good spot to rest they get glimpses of more animals, some look normal to what could be found in Earth-like some deer species having brown and white fur, squirrels that are of the same size and build but on different colors, some pink, some green, others purple.

The bunnies are the most radically different, they are like hedgehogs with their spikes but small and fluffy like normal. Their colors are also completely different. They are yellow with a tail that has similar aspects to a cloud of gas. Most of these animals are inoffensive and just watch the pair and their horses walk by.

Cavendish is shocked and interested in what he has seen so far. He never saw mutations like this, not even when they were plans of using animals as bioweapons for the war they looked this… Different.

“The more I see of this planet the more it surprises me… Were animals really this adaptable to different environments and evolution?” He questions out loud absolutely amazed, while Dakota does not display that much incredulity.

“Well, animals tend to look for the best way possible for them to live, if evolution and changes to their body are what’s needed to be done, they will do it. Their nature is to not really give up to life. That’s why they make more and more, search for food on their own. Looking out for themselves is a pretty good way for them to keep goin’. That is something that makes me get inspired every single day. I see them so often just live like this it makes me think: “Hey, if they can do it, why couldn’t I do that?”

Those thoughts are something Cavendish can share. He never gave up on his dream of being a good agent for his country, he never gave up in the middle of the war, he never gave up when he had to stop it from destroying more and more lives.

“Very wise words Mr.Dakota. I share the same feeling. I do not care if this is not my… Forte if you will. I will learn to handle myself better as a sheriff and as a horse rider. I can guarantee it.”

The brunette stares at his partner who has some kind of fire in his vision. An undying fire and determination to make things right, to fight for justice and the well being of his piers. That’s the kinda stuff that he likes to see in people. “That’s what I’m talkin’ about Cavendish!”

Dakota approaches a specific tree and presses his hand to the middle of it, and also steps on a specific spot of grass. He waits on this position for something to happen and Cavendish is confused as to why he is doing this.

“What… Are you doing Mr.Dakota?” He asks.

“You’ll see, give it a bit more.” Dakota responds with confidence and with good reason, as the ground ahead of them begins to shape and form while also descending to the ground. Not much is able to be seen while the ground is below, but in its raise various things changed.

Now there is a black pot in the middle, held over by a fire pit most likely for cooking food, two comfortable logs of wood, a hitching post for horses and targets for practicing shooting.

“What is all of this!?” Balthazar exclaims completely astonished by what he is seeing.

“This is a little spot that our community made, for people that just pass by and want to have a good rest.” Dakota keeps walking with Spirit and demounts from the pony.

He leads her to the hitch and looks back at Cavendish. “Hey Cavendish, look at what I’m doin’ here okay?”

The Brit nods with his head while looking focused at what his partner is about to do. Dakota begins to tie the leadrope to the tree and explains while doing so. “First thing, you need to make sure you don’t tie up your horse by the reign, you have to use the leadrope or you are gonna end up hurting them. Second, make sure you leave only 3 feet of rope for your horse to move around.”

Vinnie shows exactly what he means leaving Spirit with 3 feet of leeway for her to move around. “You don’t give them anymore than 3 because they could get the rope caught up in their legs and fall over. That is a no no, and they also need to have space for backing off.” He finishes the preparations and now Spirit is secured to the post. She feels pretty relaxed with her position and just slides her feet through the dirt.

“Oh! I forgot, one last thing. You need to make sure the knot is nice and tight. Also make sure you are securing your horse to a sturdy structure and also getting rid of any spikes or pointy things that could hurt your horse if you happen to tie him up to a tree.”

Having finished with his lecture he tells his partner to come by and relax. “All right, just hitch Shay in the post, get a seat and relax. I will tell ya more about this place.”

The Brit does what he was instructed and exactly as Dakota did before, he takes a seat on the log right beside Dakota and takes a breather.

“There. So, would it be possible you could me more about this… Camping spot? If that is what this should be called?”

Dakota snickers at what Cavendish asked of him and proceeds to answer. “Sure Cavendish.” He clears his throat in order to tell the small story of the camp site. “Since we know everybody has to have some time for relaxing themselves or practice their shooting in case the shooting area of the Marshall’s office is completely full, we developed this place little by little. First we got the logs by cutting some trees and made sure they were safe to sit on, we got this little pot and firepit for cooking up any food that you might need to eat. The targets there were a creation made by one of our scientists. They are orbs of light that we can adjust to either be solid or for bullets and lasers to pass through them, as well as adjusting if they should move, stay still or changing the size of the orbs.”

Dakota takes a glance at the mentioned orbs that are sustained by a metal device that projects the object itself and Cavendish also looks briefly.

“More technology huh?” He asks in a tired tone. The technology keeps impressing him each and every single time he sees a new one, but it also makes him feel saddened and empty. How could this place have this kind of high tech while his own country does not even come close?

He discards the thought out of his mind in order to keep hearing Dakota’s story.

“Sooo, after we setup the practice targets, we had to setup the hitching spot and it was kinda difficult to do that, it was the first time any of us tried to do it by ourselves. But it did work out in the end. We wanted to provide people of trust with this spot and to keep it nice and clean.”

Vinnie looks at the tree that he used to reveal the camp and talks about the hiding mechanism. “Since this place is meant for people that we trust and that would respect it like it deserves we made that mechanism. It only works if you use one hand and keep your feet planted in a special position, like the one I did and if you hold it for 8 seconds.”

That definitely seems reasonable for Cavendish, although he does wonder how other people are able to access the camp site if it’s hidden for many people and the method for revealing it is so secretive and specific. “That does sound good Mr.Dakota, but how are other people able to find out about this place? The requirements for revealing it as so specific and… Abstract.”

Dakota also has a response for that and very simple too. “That’s easy, we just tell whoever we think is of trust about the details and we let them enjoy the camp site. Like anything it hasn’t been perfect, we have had a few people come in and trash everything either on purpose or by not being careful. It hasn’t been too bad though.”

The story has been entertaining and interesting for Cavendish and he got to know something more that this community holds dear. Although a question lingers on his mind, and he finds it hard to let it out with his words.

“So… Do you… Um…” He swallows before talking again. “Do you… Trust me?”

The brunette was taken by surprise with this question. Did he actually trust Cavendish? Or was it just a thing out of habit? He does not have an answer yet and instead stares into the Brit with his eyes wide open.

The pair look at each other for a brief moment, until Dakota finally releases his answer. “Yeah, I do trust ya. You seem like a nice guy and that I don’t think you would even enjoy trashing this place.”

That much is right, Cavendish would not enjoy destroying other people’s property even on a fit of rage. Those words really hit home however.

_He does trust me…? After he told me he doesn’t like my kind…? Is he actually not playing around with my feelings?_

That thought makes him put a smile and he looks back at his partner with some kind of hope. Hope that he really means that Dakota does indeed trust him enough to let him hang out in the camp site.

Dakota responds with the same attitude and suggests an activity for both of them to do.

“Hey Cavendish, you wanna practice your aiming and shooting? I think this could be a perfect time for us to practice and I could teach ya some tricks and such. Whadda ya say?”

Balthazar thinks it is a good idea indeed and accepts it with open arms. “That does sound enticing, and would help me improve in that area. Let’s do it.”

The pair get up from the logs and head to the orbs for target practice. Vinnie recommends Cavendish to first practice with his pistols, as they have the less amount of blowback. “All right, pull out your pistols first, we are gonna try with that as they aren’t as heavy and powerful as your rifle.”

The Brit gets hold of his pistols, which he has keeping in his holster pockets. “Here they are.”

“Good! Now, try to destroy one of the orbs, preferably the big one.”

Cavendish attempts to focus and takes aim with his bullet based pistol first at the biggest orb. The orb itself is of the size of a normal balloon. The Brit wants to hit it and make it disappear, he wants to make himself feel good about it. He wants to succeed.

To his dismay however he misses and Dakota notices. He does not react, he does not say anything. He only observes.

Cavendish is starting to get those anxiety thoughts on his head again and he does not like them at all.

_Wh-why!? Why did I miss again!? How did I miss such a big target!? How can I be this… Awful… I don’t…_

“Hey.”

Cavendish feels Dakota resting his hand on his shoulder and giving him support. “Don’t worry about it, not everybody gets it the first or second time Cavendish. It is okay. I saw the stuff that you did wrong and I will help you out and tell you how to improve. You ain’t givin’ me shame or that I’m doing this out of obligation. I want ya to improve for your own good, all right?”

Now that is something that he needed to hear. Thanks to Dakota’s words of encouragement, Cavendish stops his head from overwhelming him and stays in control. “T-thank you.”

He resumes his shooting position and Dakota helps him with adjustments.

“Okay, you need to hold your weapon more firmly, have your feet planted, let your shoulders be firm, but loose at the same time.” He leans in closer and changes Cavendish’s position with his own hands while the Brit himself lets Dakota do so.

He is better positioned than before and has a better grip of his weapon. “Now what?” He asks curious and eager to know the next step.

“Now, you focus on your target, breathe in, breathe out slowly and calmly. That is to get your muscles tensed up and ready to fire, while also letting you get a hold of yourself.”

Cavendish closes his eyes, inhales slowly, feeling how is chest is filled with the air that his helmet provides, he exhales and gets his muscles tensed up. Even when they are tense he does not feel any pressure or weight coming from them. He opens his eyes and has a clear view of his target.”

BANG!

The orb disappeared. He did it, he actually shot it down.

“Yes! It is gone! I hit it!” He yelled with joy.

“That’s it! See? I told ya you could get it!” Dakota celebrates as well and gives him a pat on the back. “That was just one shot though, but still a lot of progress! When push comes to shove, you definitely show who’s boss!”

The Brit clears his throat for masking his actual feelings and just decides to make an almost dry delivery for his words. “Yes, I knew I would get the hang of this eventually.”

Dakota chuckles at Cavendish’s attitude as he knows he is trying to hide his emotion and happiness. “Sure, you got it Cavendish.” He says with a snarky grin.

Cavendish in response huffs back and tries to get another shot in the same way. He misses however.

“W-what the! But why?” He is shaken and confused as to why he missed his shot.

_Heh, he still needs a lot of practice, just because he got one shot doesn’t mean he’s gonna get every single one. He needs to understand that._ Dakota thinks in his head and he suggests something to his partner.

“All right, you should keep practicing with that pistol, after… A hour of practice, switch to your laser pistol, as I think you got a better handle of that type of weapon. I remember last time you tried to practice you did not get a single shot with the bullet based pistol, but you got one shot with the laser one.”

Balthazar makes a small remembrance of the first time he tried to practice and finds that his associate is correct. “That is true Mr.Dakota, I believe the reason that is the case is because of the excessive recoil that my colt pistol creates. It is challenging to keep my arm straight when that kind of power is released.”

As the brunette has gotten a lot of experience with more common type weapons he explains quickly what happens with recoil. “Well, I ended up helping ya with your stance and positioning because that reduces the recoil but that ain’t gonna cut it every single time. You still need practice, you still need to get used to it. It will come with time. You have to practice with both weapons and use them in both hands, and practice with each separate hand using a different pistol. That way you would be able to shoot with no problem even if you switched your usual hand for using your laser pistol or colt pistol.”

With the explanation done, Balthazar resumes and uses the same technique that Dakota taught him moment earlier.

BANG!

He succeeds in hitting the big orb once more and stares back at his weapon. “I see…” He doesn’t take his view off the gun and seems to be in a pensive state.

Dakota notices this and wants to intervene but before he can do so, the Brit shoots another round and hits the target again. Very easily in fact.

“Wow. That was an even cleaner shot!” Dakota points out while he keeps his hands on his belt.

Cavendish exhales more calmly and changes his focus to the mid sized orb. “Okay… Let’s see if I can hit this one.” Another pull on the trigger is made, and unfortunately the bullet misses its target.

“Blast.” Cavendish damned the flying sphere in frustration.

He kept practicing for a hour with getting some successful shots while also missing many of them. 10 hits against the targets, 30 misses against them. He took out his laser pistol and adopted the same pose as the one he used for the colt.

“Well… Here goes.” Says Cavendish before shooting. Inhale, exhale. He fires and is able to hit the big orb easily. This was unlike his previous attempts with the more normal firearm as he did struggle to find his footing. With this type of gun the shot flowed through him naturally and with higher precision.

“See? I told ya you were better with laser stuff.”

Cavendish glances swiftly at his partner and has something to say to him. “I know, and I appreciate your help Mr.Dakota, but please, do not insist on this matter. It is true that I am better with these kinds of firearms.”

After he lowers his gun and turns himself towards Dakota and finishes his reclaim. “You do not have to remind me of this every single opportunity you might have and I wish you let me get a better grip of this on my own. If I feel the need of asking for your help, I will notify you immediately.”

Dakota zips his mouth and doesn’t really emote or say anything else. It was something unexpected for him. He was only trying to be helpful, but he did come to the realization that he was beginning to become irritating.

Only one word comes out and he feels is the right thing to say. “Sorry.”

That did ease the situation and Cavendish was allowed to practice for another hour. Until the rain started to fall.

“W-what the…?” Balthazar questioned himself. “How can there be rain in this planet?”

“Well, we wanted to replicate Earth’s atmosphere and climate changes as closely as we could. Sooo, we have rain, winter, summer, spring, fall, all of that jazz. There’s a satellite high up in the sky that just creates whatever weather we should have going on. If it’s raining it’s because we should have rain right now.”

Although Cavendish is fascinated by that aspect, he is also not very happy about it. “Very interesting indeed. The problem is that this is a bad time for there to be rain!”

He was correct, as the water was pouring down on his clothes and on Dakota’s.

“No biggie, we just need to setup a tent.” Dakota declares and he puts his hand inside one of his bandolier’s pockets, taking out a capsule and activating it.

The tent is setup and ready to be used.

“Perfect! Now let me just take out my own tent.” The Brit says as he was starting to approach his saddle bag. His partner has other plans however.

“Aaawww come on, don’t leave me hangin’ Cavendish. We can share the tent. Besides, we can use the space better and such, we wouldn’t have two tents out at once when we only need one. Y’know?”

That doesn’t sit very well with Cavendish. Having to share the same tent with somebody he barely even knows? Dakota might be a good person and all, but to Cavendish it is distasteful and rather rude.

“I would… Rather not. I am well equipped to sustain myself in my own tent and would be extremely intrusive. I could never do such a thing. So I am afraid I must decline.“

Dakota is bummed down that his partner won’t accept his invitation and Cavendish reaches to his saddle bag.

He pulls out his tent capsule and wants to do something very… Bold.

He throws the capsule behind his back with one hand, feeling very confident that is gonna land right behind him and make an impressive display.

His plan does not go well. He keeps awaiting for his tent to appear and turns his back to see that it is not there.

“Whe-where did it go!?” He shouts in complete disbelief.

Dakota points with his finger where Cavendish’s tent is and the Brit looks in horror.

The tent got stuck in a branch and is quite high. He could try to reach it but it would be a rather unstable place to stay in.

“By giddy uncle… Just what I needed!” He howls enraged.

Now he has no other option but to share the tent with his partner. So reluctantly and with furious stomps, he makes his way over to where Dakota is and enters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cavendish and Dakota are bonding more and more! Getting closer and such. I do hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to the next one! It's gonna be packed!


	7. The Meaning Of A Sheriff

Cavendish and Dakota are now sitting down inside the tent.

Balthazar is not happy of his stay and pouts while crossing his arms.

“Hey… Uh… Dude, you okay?” Dakota asks the blond and he responds with bitterness.

“Yes. I, am, fine.”

Dakota frowns at the response and bites back with his own remark. “Look, if you are gonna be having that attitude with me you might as well exit and get all wet in the rain. I am only tryin’ to be nice here okay? How bad can it be to just share a tent?”

Cavendish sighs with his nose and just remains silent.

With the cold atmosphere that can be felt in the tent, Dakota just decides to unwind by grabbing a bag of dehydrated food. To be specific two packets of meatballs with tomato sauce and rice.

Cavendish takes a glance and the curiosity gets to him. “Is that… Dehydrated food…?” He says.

Dakota looks back at him and gives him a dry answer. “Yeah. It’s what we’re gonna eat.”

The brunette reaches out below his camp bed and gets hold of two plates. He pours the content of the meatball bags in the two separate plates.

It just appears to be a bunch of dust lying on the porcelain and not appetizing. Not yet at least.

Vinnie grabs a canteen and activates a button. The button heats up the water in order to stimulate and hydrate the food. He lets the water drip into the dust and In a matter of seconds the food gains its normal appearance and looks very tasty.

“Oh… Oh my, that looks pleasant and edible.” Cavendish points out and Dakota barely reacts to his words.

“It’s just dehydrated food dude.” The cowboy spouts with a rough tone.

That was definitely not a good attitude. Cavendish realizes how much he has angered his partner and instead of answering with the same token, he attempts to apologize.

“I’m… Sorry. I shouldn’t have acted like that… It’s not that I do not want to share the tent because of me hating you or something alike. The reason is because I do not like to take advantage of others even if they offer me their help and hospitality.”

Dakota looks back at Cavendish and does understand the Brit’s point and reasoning. “That’s good and all, but you really should try to not take things this seriously. Before I probably wouldn’t have cared about ya and all but to me you are most likely not like the others. I have seen things to admire and take into account, that time when you yelled at that shop keeper about the apples and stuff. It wasn’t just because you wanted to feel superior. It was because you actually cared if somebody got hurt or killed by the damn things. And you are so stubborn!”

Those words were probably not the right thing to say, as Cavendish gave his partner a vicious glare. He took it as an insult.

 _Woups… Shouldn’t have said like that._ Dakota considered with his inner voice. He tugs his bandana nervously and makes an effort to fix his mistake. “I didn’t mean it like that! I meant it in a good way! That you… Uh… Never give up! That you keep going even if other people tell ya to stop or your own mind telling ya to stop trying. Not many people have that kind of mental strength and it is something that I wish I had sometimes.”

Luckily for Dakota, Cavendish got to see what Dakota was meaning to say.

He faintly smiled but he has other things in his mind he wants to speak about. “We have said many times how we admire some our aspects and such Mr.Dakota, and I really do appreciate that, but… If we are going to be partners, maybe we could get to know a bit more of ourselves and how we lived differently. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Sharing information about their lives? That could be nice while having a meal. Although Dakota is somewhat unsure if he desires to share that kind of information with somebody he doesn’t fully know.

But what is life without taking risks?

“Okay. Let’s talk about our lives while we have time. I am kinda interested on how life has been on Earth as I haven’t really gotten to see anything about that.”

Dakota turns his eyes to his food and before he can begin to eat, he notices something: Both him and Cavendish don’t really have air and have to use their helmets.

“Oh wait, before we do that let me do something real quick.” Dakota states as he grabs something else from his bandolier.

It is an oxygen cylinder.

He throws it to the floor and the item breaks. Not a single part bounced on their food luckily enough.

The blond is completely disturbed however. “WHAT THE JUICE!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” He shouts puzzled and rattled.

Even more shocking, Dakota disables his helmet by pressing the button on his hat and it has Cavendish panic.

“NO! STOP IT!” He reclaims in fear.

Dakota himself seems to be perfectly fine though. He is not suffocating or convulsing from toxic air, or lack of oxygen and he stares back at his partner very oddly. “What? Is somethin’ wrong? Do I have somethin’ on my face?”

Instead of his fear going any higher, Cavendish’s expression is now only confusion and disbelief.

“Ho-how… How are you able to breathe? I-I thought there wasn’t any air here!”

Thinking about what he just did, Dakota recognizes that this was probably way too shocking for Cavendish to see so suddenly. He only did it because of habit and for him being completely normal. The appearance on his face changes accordingly and opens his mouth to explain another thing.

“Um… Sorry I didn’t say anything. Basically what I did was break one of the oxygen cylinders. If you break one of them in a specific area, you can breathe the air that was in the cylinder for a hour. It replaces whatever was present in the air as there was so much compressed oxygen and it’s also why it can only last for a hour. It expands and goes away on that time. So in order for us to eat I had to break one of these. Nothing to worry about. I promise.”

“You really need to stop doing that! Do not do things like this without explaining it first you dummy!” He reclaims upset towards Dakota.

Dakota accepts his mistake and instead entices Cavendish with the food bestow upon them. “Look, maybe if we start eatin’ we can get in a better mood, how about that? ‘Cause I’m honestly starving.”

“Very well. Let us commence.” Spoke Cavendish while looking at his food.

Dakota offers him the silverware that he might want to use and they finally begin.

The first question that Cavendish has on his mind is regarding the entire planet and he does not hesitate to ask. He finishes his first bite of his food before speaking, swallows and talks.

“Before we actually ask some questions about ourselves, I have a very important query that has been bothering me ever since I got here. If I may of course.”

Dakota’s interest is peaked and he asks Cavendish what is his question about. “Somethin’ that’s been botherin’ you ever since you got here? What could that be?”

Balthazar recollects what he saw when he first landed on the planet, everybody using their western gear, how there has been tons and tons of technology but also primitive ways of living. “Why do you and everybody in this planet look so… Primitive and yet are so advanced? You could be able to wear and use very high end clothing and have complete control over this land. What is the reason for using those… American clothes? Why did you transfer various types of animals, why do you have a normal climate system? What has been the point?”

Quite the lengthy question for Dakota to answer and his eyes widen slightly because of it. He never got asked anything like this and at first doesn’t know what to say.

“Well…” He lets out while scratching the back of his head unprepared for a response. The thinks about it a few seconds more and does reach to a conclusion.

“The reason why we are like this, is because we saw what our ancestors did before in the 1800’s. They were pioneers, trying to take reigns over a land that to them was unexplored. They had to fight mother nature, but also live alongside it. They used technology but also lived in peace with the environment, or at least they tried. We wanted to have that same mindset. To live our lives while also letting the animals, plants and other stuff live theirs. We kinda need one another to be able to survive sometimes and we valued those aspects.”

He took another bite of his meatball while still talking.

“We alsho wantegd to have freedom, liberty. Y’know?”

Cavendish feels disgusted at seeing his partner eat while talking and has to point out his discontent. “That is… Interesting Mr.Dakota but… Could you please stop talking with your mouth full? It is very disrespectful and rude.”

The brunette notices what Cavendish is talking about and apologizes. “My bad.”

He swallows the piece of meat down his throat. “Aah yeah, that’s the good stuff.”

“Now… Where as I…” Vinnie attempts to remember where he left off his story. “Oh yeah! It was about our liberty. Yeah, since we didn’t have the best impression at all from UK people and a lot of our ancestors knew about their behavior, everybody from the US and Mexico moved here while also adjusting our lives to the western life style. It was meant as a life style where they had to go through boundaries and obstacles to get a proper home, actual freedom and also live alongside nature. That is why we wanted to replicate it as closely as we could, but with more advanced technology, as it was deemed necessary for us to do so. But we did always try to reach a middle point. Animals and other life forms are still living beings. We didn’t want to let them die. It would’ve been unfair.”

The Brit looks back at his partner in a better light, and also some of the people that happen to live in this planet. He can relate to freedom and independence while also being mindful of how much your freedom can break somebody else’s freedom or life style.

“I… Never expected such a… Remark and reason for why every single one of you live like this. I knew it was probably something that was willingly decided, but I did not quite think it was for these… Deep and intricate circumstances. It is a noble way of thinking if you want my honest opinion.” Cavendish asserts while commending his associate.

“Hehe, thanks Cavendish.” Dakota smiles as he feels embarrassed and thinks he is not worthy of praise. “It seriously ain’t all that. Other people got the same idea I did way before I even got here.”

That hit Cavendish like a shock in his head. As soon as heard that sentence he questioned Dakota about his own reasons for being there. “The same idea as you did? What kind of idea was that? Why did you want to leave Earth?”

The cowboy bit his lip nervously. He revealed too much and now he had to respond. He could just not say anything, but this was Cavendish’s proposition and he made an endeavor on trying to know him better. That would be incredibly rude even to Dakota.

“I…” Before he continues, he takes a deep breath and his expression seems to be more somber.

“I lived in New Jersey while the war was going on. It was not a good time, there were many massacres going on and a lot of bad stuff where I was livin’. My family was lucky enough to not get caught up in all of that mess while I was younger. Until some guys came into our home and… Took my parents away. I was able to escape for the meanwhile and I came back a bit later to see if my family was able to return at all. They did… But… They were… Different.”

Not a good way to start a story of somebody’s life. Dakota was already in a bad environment to be as a child and his parents appeared to have changed. Cavendish on his good nature insists to dig deeper and know more of the details.

“How were they different?”

Dakota gazed back to Cavendish in relative anguish. He was visibly hurt, but was able to pull through. “I came back and they were… Sophisticated… Fancy… Like how most of you behave… They weren’t like me… It’s like I was seeing two completely different people. They tried to… Teach me on how to be proper and stuff, but I never really learned, and I never wanted to learn. That happened when I was 15. I endured that stuff for 3 years until I finally got out of the house and never looked back. In those times I heard of rumors. Rumors of people living in space… Living like cowboys! And they were free! They had rules and all but not as strict as what happened with the rest of Earth. Some guys offered me a lift of no return to this planet and I didn’t look back at all. The reason I trusted them is because they were going through the same situation and wanted to get out of that stupid planet. And so did I. One of those guys was working for O.W.C.A and had access to space shuttles. We got on board in one of those and landed here.”

After getting through the grueling and traumatic stuff, Dakota’s face changed to be more chipper and happier as he began to tell what was of his life in Mars.

“When I got here I saw all of these people actually acting like the movies of the old west, and even doing stuff that I didn’t see in those movies! I always loved cowboys and the wild west, so being in a place that was all about that had me super excited! In here I also got to know about Sheriff’s and how they protect others. That maybe I could have a new family here, or have a purpose. So I worked super hard to achieve that. I practiced every single day with horse riding and shooting non stop. It was something that I knew I could do and that would make me useful. When I was… 23 I was considered to be a pretty top shelf deputy. It was only when I was 37 that the entire town voted for me to be a sheriff. And ever since that day everybody has looked up to me and admired me as their… Guardian? Protective figure? I dunno, but it has been pretty big.”

That sounds awfully familiar to somebody Cavendish knows. Somebody really close.

“So… They see you… As a hero?” He questions.

Dakota snickers at the notion. “Cht, a hero? Yeah, I guess you could call me that, although that’s a bit too dramatic don’tcha think?”

Cavendish with this conversation has reached a new way to see Dakota. They might be different in how they were raised and how they spent their life, but the two of them actually share something in common: Both of them are treated as heroes in their own “world” and they also truly love what they do for others. Coming to terms with this has made him open to more possibilities of bonding together as they at least have that desire to experience with one another.

“I do not think that is dramatic at all. Sometimes people need a figure to look up towards, so they can have a more meaningful existence, or to give their life some purpose. Gravitate to that figure for hope, inspiration and serenity. That even if you aren’t able to do anything, there is somebody else doing the things that you wish you could do for others. Not everybody has the chance to do something that… Transcendent and massive. That is why I wanted to be the best that I could be. To inspire.”

The pieces were starting to click together, the pair were indeed understanding more of their own psyche and desires. Dakota smiles with satisfaction and fellowship at the Brit. He gets a hold of his plate and lifts it closely to Cavendish. “Then I think we can be good partners Cavendish. I dunno how it goes but let’s do a… Toast?” He smirks, feeling like a fool for not knowing how to make a toast with a plate, or if he should even do it.

Cavendish at first looks at him oddly and raising an eyebrow, completely confused as to what Dakota meant to do. He catches on quickly and puts a grin, slightly mocking his associate’s demeanor.

Instead of following suit, he suggests instead to make their meatballs touch each other while they are stuck on the forks by sticking the utensil into the food and approaching it to Dakota.

Dakota sees him do this and proceeds to do the same with glee. “Haha, Yeah!” He speaks with excitement.

The two men finish eating their meal and give their opinion about it.

First one is Dakota. “Hmmm… Those were some juicy meatballs, no wonder they were premium. The packaging never lies.” He really enjoyed his time eating the food and just had a positive aura all around him.

Cavendish was able to get a hold of the bag and also gives his take. “For being dehydrated food, it was quite impressive. The taste of soft but sturdy meat was immaculate and the rice felt rich in flavor. I never took anything of that quality from a simple bag of dehydrated food before.”

“Well, glad you enjoyed it Cavendish.” Dakota says with a smirk on his face. His partner corresponds with the same ticket and they reactive their space helmets before getting out of the tent.

The rain has stopped and the weather feels moist while refreshing at the same time.

“Nothing like the aftermath of a rain, don’t you agree partner?” Cavendish voices with serenity as he spreads his arms open.

“Yeah, it feels nice. I always liked to feel the water after the rain ended.” Dakota agrees and keeps walking alongside the Brit.

He takes a glance at the targets and he points at them. “Hey dude, how about you try to practice with your rifle against the targets now?”

“With my rifle? That sounds perfectly suitable for me. I do need to grasp and control my equipment properly to perform in a good level.” Cavendish affirms and takes the capsule that has his rifle.

He activates it and the rifle materializes in his hands. “Oh my… It feels heavier than I remembered.” He mentions while he holds it on both of his hands.

“Just put on the strap and try to shoot the big orb in there. If you can hit it then handling your rifle shouldn’t be too hard, if you don’t we can spend time making you get used to it.” Dakota crosses his arms in a relaxed motion and keeps an eye out for his comrade as he begins to equip the rifle on his body with a strap.

He is ready and takes aim at the orb. Cavendish concentrates and makes his shot.

PEW!

He misses the target completely due to the blowback of the gun and he is visibly disappointed. “Dang nab it… I missed.”

Vinnie witnesses how Cavendish missed his shot and decides to cheer him on. “Aw don’t worry about it. That is a heavier weapon so it’s natural that you have trouble using it in your first try. Keep goin’ and I promise ya you will improve.”

That was the intention that Cavendish had in mind. However, the pair hear something in the distance that caught their attention and also worry.

“HELP! HELP! PLEASE! SOMEBODY HELP ME!”

It’s the scream of a woman, begging for assistance and when the two men look at her direction, they see her stowed into the back of a horse while some delinquents are quarrying her away.

This is an emergency and they know this. They have to act fast.

“W-We have to do something!” Exclaimed the Brit in anxiety and hurry.

Without saying a single word, Dakota runs quickly to Spirit and unties her from the post of the camp site. “Stay here Cavendish, I’ll go and stop them dead in their tracks. They are not gonna get away with this!”

He gets up on the saddle, leans forward and taps both of Spirit’s sides while also having his hand lean forward as well, to make the pony’s leadrope feel looser.

With this the animal begins a frantic sprint towards the group of bandits while Dakota has a determined and angry look on his face. His expression is very frightening and could even scare a ghost.

Cavendish saw how his partner went on without him and does not wish to be left behind. So he goes to his own horse, unties him from the post and and starts to ride him.

“Shay, please follow Mr.Dakota! We have to stop those outlaws no matter what!” I need your help to give them justice!” Without Cavendish doing what Dakota did, Shay takes off with his jockey not being prepared for the sheer amount of speed that he is riding at.

Cavendish attempts to hold on by grabbing his saddle and resisting as much as he can. With shay’s velocity he is able to catch up to Dakota and he is able to see the bandits, although he cannot do anything else. He has to hold on or he will fall down.

The Brit feels completely overwhelmed and has no way of truly helping Dakota with his endeavor. As he keeps moving at this sheer amount of speed he enters a state of unbalance, his vision gets blurry and he feels his body feeling stiffer.

“N-no… I… I have to help him… I… I can’t…” He tries his best to not succumb into his symptoms, but it is impossible for him. His body has not gone back to its normal state, the state he was in before he embarked on his space odyssey and that is affecting him as well.

His eyes close and he falls off his horse. As soon as he does Shay stops and gets closer to his rider.

Cavendish himself feels his head be all over the place, he is dizzy and disoriented, he got hurt from his fall and already knows he has a few bumps on his body and he is laying on the ground, with his arms opened.

“S-shay… I… I failed again…” His insecurities and humongous sense of failure come back to haunt him and make him feel worse. “I… I couldn’t do anything to help… Now Mr.Dakota could die… Because I wasn’t there to at least try to help…”

His horse looks at him concerned and somehow understanding how he feels. He offers his head for Cavendish to support himself and get up.

He accepts the steed’s help and is able to stand up. His spirit is absolutely demolished however. Now he has to wait for his comrade to return and he doesn’t even know if he will.

He ponders as to why he even came here if he was going to be in this state.

_Why… Just why did I even come here? I know it was because of queen Hildegard’s orders and because she wanted me to improve but… What even is the point if I’m going to be this… Useless…? I cannot wield a gun, I cannot ride a horse. I am… Unhelpful here. Nobody needs me here._

He glares onto the dirt with sorrow, anguish and frustration. He clinches his fists in defeat and almost starts to cry.

Until his horse gives him a small bump with his nose. Balthazar turns his head and sees how Shay shows empathy.

“S-shay… You understand me…?” Cavendish queries the quadruped creature and the only thing the horse does is offer his head again. It just wants to provide his master with something to hold into.

That makes Cavendish smile weakly and pats his steed softly. His emotions decreased on their intensity. The curly and soft bushy hair of Shay lets the blond unwind and calm his inner fears down.

After some minutes of wait, Dakota finally arrives, although he is without his horse. “Hey, wassup?” He says calmly and with a smile.

“Dakota!” Cavendish says with relief but also worry. “Are you okay? Where is Spirit?” He questioned

“Yeah, I’m good, and Spirit is just waitin’ for me to return. No need to worry about her or me.” Dakota answered with no problem and in fact makes a fun remark about Cavendish. “Hehe, just noticed something. This is the second time you just call me Dakota and not add that Mr.Dakota thing.”

The fact that Cavendish has even slipped up on that area has him flustered and nags his partner to stop. “W-what!? J-just stop! That is not important! What about the outlaws? The ruffians? Did you stop them?”

Dakota’s smile grows even bigger, full of confidence and security. “Yeah, I got ‘em all right. They really weren’t that much trouble. We just need to head where Spirit is and just deliver them to Mr.Block.”

“Very well then, let us head into their location Mr.Dakota.” The Brit replied as he cleared his throat from his previous interaction.

Shay, Cavendish and Dakota walk to where Spirit is waiting and reach her in a short amount of time.

There she is keeping watch of the group of bandits, who have some injuries in their arms. To be specific bullet holes with dried out blood in their clothes.

The delinquents are also tied up with lots of rope to not let them escape from their punishment.

In the same area, they find the woman who was getting kidnapped safe and sound sitting on a close by rock. Her hair is red and is wearing a blue full body dress with white accents, green eyes and a wearing a white beret hat with a blue strip and with her helmet active as well.

“Oh! There you are sheriff!” She speaks in relief and goes towards the pair.

Dakota greets her with his hand and talks to her. “Yeah, told ya it wasn’t gonna take long.” He smiles and Cavendish looks at the woman.

She also does the same at the blond and asks Dakota who Cavendish is. “Sorry to ask but, who is this? Your partner?”

Dakota smirks and responds. “Yeah, he’s my partner. He is kinda new at this so you are gonna have to forgive him. He really tried to help but it was impossible. He only started riding and stuff today and we have only known each other for like 2 days.”

Her look is just in shock more than anything and has to dwell more on this subject. “What? Only 2 days of knowing each other? And only started to ride today? You… You’re just joking! How could he be your partner if he’s such a novice!”

Cavendish knows she is not wrong at all and he has to make his performance improve, to at least appear capable of being a partner. So he attempts to say something to the lady and give her some confidence.

“I’m quite sorry madam but from my country we didn’t really have any of this, and it has been a rou-“

“Madam!?” The woman exclaimed and immediately proceed to give Cavendish a slap on his face. Problem is that he has his space helmet activated, so the slap just hits the glass instead.

Balthazar saw what the woman wanted to do and just appears to be appalled and uncomfortable. “Um…”

Dakota snickers and tries to explain to the lady what Cavendish meant while also trying to not laugh. “Khk… Miss, my partner here didn’t want to offend you, in his country madam is what they say to a lady like you, kinda like how we call women miss here.”

The poor red haired female blushes in absolute shame and apologizes intensively. “I’m so so so so sorry! I thought you were saying something else to me! I am such a jerk!”

The Brit stares at the woman and raises an eyebrow, very confused but willing to accept her apology. “Erm… It’s okay madam… Just… Um… Be more careful next time… We don’t want to see you or anybody else get hurt, okay?”

To escape the embarrassing situation she put herself into, she agrees and speaks hastily. “Yeah yeah, I agree wholeheartedly, I do need to head into the general store though, I need to buy some groceries so I will see you soon!”

She walks quickly away from the situation awkwardly while both Cavendish and Dakota see her leave.

“Should we accompany her?” Cavendish inquires with his associate.

“Yeah, we should, we kinda need her to fill a report and a bunch of other legal stuff. While we do that we also have to wait for our backup, it’s mostly for carrying the whole group to Mr.Block, since we don’t really got space to carry them.” Dakota affirms and explains to Cavendish.

With this being laid out the two men go towards the woman and offer her a ride.

“Hey miss, would you mind us giving you a lift? We just need to wait for some of the other deputies to arrive and take care of those ruffians and we will have to carry ya to the Marshall’s office, just in case you wanna fill a report.” Dakota adds as he looks at his watch and see how long they have been waiting for the backup to arrive.

It has been 10 minutes since he gave them a call from his wrist watch and the three of them await for the deputies to arrive.

Cavendish keeps petting and stroking Shay’s bushy hair with a smile and Shay himself seems to really enjoy it, while Dakota shares his water with Spirit.

“There you go girl, you did a great job today. Even if we aren’t friends or something like that, I still like ya and consider you important, don’t you forget that, ‘kay?”

Spirit neighs proudly and whips her head to the left in a rebellious attitude. She wanted to portray dominance, but instead what she did was make Dakota think of her as charming and cute.

After 2 hours of waiting, the backup finally arrives with a cage wagon and they get down to speak with Cavendish and Dakota.

“Hello there partners!” One of the deputies says as he approaches Dakota.

“Hey! Glad you guys were able to make it!” He greeted his fellow law enforcers and made them catch up to the situation, as he wants to transfer the group of 5 bandits as soon as possible to the Marshall’s office.

After the two deputies have caught up to speed, they place the bandits inside the cage, with their hands tied up behind their back and with barely any space to move.

Dakota glances over to the red haired woman and makes a suggestion. “Hey, do you mind if I take ya to the Marshall’s office? My partner over there hasn’t really had a good day, considering all of this stuff, and I am pretty sure he fell off his horse, so he must be hurt and tired.”

The lady sees Cavendish with a tired and disappointed expression plastered all over him and agrees with Dakota’s suggestion. “Yeah… Let’s go, I wouldn’t want to be a burden to your partner.”

She hops on to Spirit and Dakota orders her nicely. “Come on girl, let’s go back to town.” Dakota taps gently his legs to the sides of Spirit and she begins to pace.

Cavendish in the meanwhile is still feeling quite down about his failure and just stares at his own horse. “Shay… Am I a failure to you…?” He asked to his steed.

Shay doesn’t really emote at first, but after considering what he was questioned about he shakes his head in denial. He does not think his master is a failure.

“…” The Brit cannot believe it, not even his horse has given up hope on him. A small tear runs down from his left eye and hugs Shay’s head. “Thank you… My dear horse…”

After he expresses his emotions to the animal, he gets up and goes alongside the group.

2 hours more and they finally arrive to town once more.

“Well, home sweet home amirite?” Dakota chattered while raising an eyebrow, trying to make a joke.

The woman finds it amusing and has a small giggle, while Cavendish sighs in disapproval and shame.

The brunette notices his associate’s reaction and keeps teasing him with his words. “Aaww come on, it was a a good one Cavendish, you don’t have to be so _bananas_ about it.” He smirked playfully and wanting to sustain the banter.

The blond did not approve. “Just because my name can be used to be described a fruit does not make it funny Mr.Dakota.” He gives him an annoyed glare and Dakota has a laugh.

“Haha! I just find bananas to sound funny, and I _reckon_ you guys don’t even have them in your country.”

“That is none of your concern.”

“Maybe it is, what if I wanna go there and I wanna get bananas?”

“Then you instead get a potato and shove it in your mouth, to not bother others and keep you silent.”

That response made matters even worse, as Dakota began to burst into laughter the entire way into Mr.Block’s office. “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! THE WAY YOU SAID POTATO! AHAHAHAHAHAAHA! Oh… Oh… I can’t… My ribs… Hahahahaha!”

The behavior of his companion is making Cavendish be in a bad mood, just having to hear him laugh so loudly and also not being able to help at all with anything today.

_He is just so… Stupid. Why does he keep mocking my accent? Was all of that talk from earlier just bluff to let me have confidence and tell him my secrets just for him to start amusing over them?_

His inner thoughts are interrupted abruptly, as they have arrived at the Marshall’s office. Dakota hops off Spirit and knocks on the door. “Mr.Block! Are you in there? We got some bandits that tried to kidnap and woman and we wanted to lock them up!”

The black haired man opens the door and gives a penetrating glare. He eyes the group of bandits locked up in the cage wagon with disgust.

“Kidnapping a woman huh? How deplorable! To think a group of delinquents would go this low! What’s next!? Kidnapping children!?” He yelled in frustration and hatred.

The deputies get the outlaws outside of their cages and go into another group of stairs besides the shooting area stairs.

“Excuse me Mr.Block, but where are they going?” Cavendish inquires as he doesn’t quite know the layout of the entire building.

Mr.Block responds with a quick statement. “They are going to the prison down below. That is where we keep most of these outlaws while we decide what their punishment will be.”

He is interrupted by the blue dress lady that Dakota was able to save and she shouts in anger. “What do you mean decide their punishment!? They had me tied up and almost successfully kidnapped me! If it wasn’t for one of your sheriff’s I wouldn’t be here! Those ruffians should be hanged!”

“H-hanged…?” The Brit questioned with a quivering voice.

“Yes! Hang them!” The lady reinforced.

Dakota has to defuse the situation and calm her down as that is not the proper procedure. “Wow wow wow, hang on miss. We cannot just do that! I know we literally saw them kidnap you and all, but if we just killed whoever committed a crime that wouldn’t be considered justified would it?”

She responded with animosity and bitterness to Vinnie’s words. “Do you think it’s justified for them to kidnap me!? I have a husband and a family! What if I died!? Who would be able to bring them the groceries!? My husband has been feeling sick lately and could not get up from his bed so I had to go and that happened!”

Dakota is beginning to get desperate and was about to yell at the poor lady. Balthazar has another solution however.

“Madam, how would you feel if you were the one that kidnapped somebody and wanted to have another chance in life, but was never given to you because that person wanted you to be killed on the spot? What if one of your children did the same and asked for redemption? Would you not give them a chance?”

That left the female completely silent. “I… Well…” She tried to reply, but it was to no avail. Cavendish’s question got her into a mental dilemma and can only listen to the rest of what the Brit has to say.

“From where I come from, prison is meant to be for reforming. For healing, for making somebody understand why they are there and why what they did was wrong. I know a lot of cases aren’t as black and white as one would think, and I know your case is very straight forward. Did you ever consider this possibility however? Did you consider what made these people delinquents in the first place? And did you even think about their own wishes? They might get executed later on, but giving them a trial seems fair enough to me.”

The entire room is completely quiet due to the connotations that Cavendish has made.

Until the woman decides to apologize. “I’m… I’m sorry… I am just so… Afraid that they might do that again to me or to another person and… They treated me so badly… I’m…”

Cavendish looks at her with a serious but comprehensive expression and says one more thing. “I understand, I know they have hurt you deeply and wanted to see them get punished. They will, but it will have to be decided on how. We will take care of this madam, we promise.”

The poor man almost cries in front of the group. Although she is capable to control herself and just take a breather. “Thank you sir. I’ll trust in your words and see that they get proper punishment, but also see them grow as better people, and I’m sorry I made every one of you feel pressured.”

“Don’t worry about it miss, you were just angry, that’s all. We’ll take of those creeps.” Dakota added with security and projecting trust with his attitude.

Before she leaves, she nods with her head and waves goodbye.

The female opens the door and exits. The door slams and the blond alongside his brown haired partner look at their boss expecting for him to make any remark or comment.

“Well, this is good to hear, you two already made your first detention without a problem and it wasn’t even a scheduled mission!” He congratulated, pleasantly surprised.

Cavendish and Dakota turn their eyes to each other and stare in silence. To them that is not completely true, as Cavendish was not apt for anything and had to let Dakota handle the situation and suffered minor injuries from falling off his horse.

“T-thank you sir…” Cavendish replied awkwardly and out of obligation. He had to accept the circumstances as they were. Otherwise Mr.Block would consider him useless and probably fire him.

“Although you are going to need one more thing, and that I forgot to give you.” Mr.Block clarified.

“Um… To not sound mean boss, but you have been forgetting a lot of things lately, are you doin’ okay?” Dakota asks in honesty.

This made Mr.Block irritated and he shouts at Dakota. “Of course I’m okay! What do you think I am!? An old man!? I have been having a lot of work to do! Remember we have been dealing with a massive amount of bandits as of late and I cannot rest or even think about my vacation!”

“Okay okay, I get it, no need to yell boss.” Dakota declares as he tries to calm down Mr.Block.

The Marshall cleared his throat and pulls out something from his pocket. They are two gold stars. “These are going to be your badges. You are required to wear them in any part of your chest as people need to recognize you as a sheriff and a deputy. It’s also related to legal stuff. If you take them off while you are in duty, a GSP locator will be activated to pinpoint your location and arrest you for a day.”

“WHAT!?” Cavendish yelped.

“It would be considered illegal for you to remove it as like I said, people NEED to recognize you, so there would be a name, a number and such. So if you do something illegal people would be able to make a report for your actions.” Mr.Block explained.

This still doesn’t remove the fear that Cavendish now has for working on this profession. He never had to deal with this kind of pressure because was always undercover. Only people of his field knew about him for a long time, until he became somewhat of a legend on Earth and even then, only some people know about him.

He still comprehends what all of this in tales and concedes to wearing the badge. “I understand sir, I will use this immediately to not cause any trouble.” Cavendish declared and grabbed the badge.

He made a quick inspection of it, noting that most of his name was printed in the star shaped badge alongside his title.

_Sheriff Balthazar T. Cavendish._

With the number: 18702018.

He really does like the neat shape of the badge and how shiny it looks, it doesn’t hurt his eyes but it is a dazzling item to look at.

Dakota looks at his own and doesn’t seem to pay much attention to it and Cavendish just sees Dakota’s name on it and his number. He is unable to see his title from the position he is looking at.

_Vinnie Dakota._

With the number: 19702018.

The two men attach the badge to their respective clothes, Cavendish to his blue and green suit’s right side, while Dakota attaches it to the right side of his orange shirt.

“That was the last thing both of ya needed from me, now get out of my office as now I have to handle the paperwork for the bandits you just caught.” Mr.Block remarked with his usually serious tone.

Without any delay, the pair head out and are now standing in the middle of the street.

“I guess this should be my leave, if you may not need me anymore.” Cavendish says with a dry and morose delivery.

Dakota crosses his hands back and forward in denial. “No no no, you can’t leave now! I had a plan for the both of us!”

The taller man stared at his partner in perplexition. “A plan? For what?” He asks.

“For hangin’ out! Since I feel ya need it to get your spirits up after what happened today, besides, the sun just set itself, it’s still early for us to just go to sleep or whatever you wanted to do!”

Cavendish took a glimpse at the sun, and his associate was right. The sundown just merely started and spending some more time with his partner could be good for his moral.

He exhales in defeat and accepts. “All right… Let’s go.”

Dakota celebrates and shouts in joy. “Yay! Then let’s go! To the saloon!”

The brunette rests his arm on the Brit’s shoulder and basically leads the way to the saloon as that is where they are going to spend the rest of the afternoon.

What will happen in this social interaction? Will Cavendish be able to enjoy himself after the mistakes and failures he suffered today? Or will Dakota be too pushy and make matters worse? Only way to find out is to experience it first hand.

What Cavendish can only hope for is for a good time and to relax.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, in case you didn't catch the joke about bananas and potato, there are types of bananas called Cavendish bananas, and there are farms that are called Cavendish Farms, they have a brand and they do sell potatoes! So there you go :P (I am awful at jokes). Either way I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, as I feel this has been my best work yet on this fic.  
> Leave a comment if you desire and tell me what you have liked so far of this space western adventure! Oh! Almost forgot, Cavendish and Dakota's badges have some references in them, but I am quite sure you guys are gonna catch them really quick.


End file.
